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By Micah McCartney
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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. cautioned China against crossing a "red line" in its interactions with its South China Sea neighbor.
"That would certainly increase the level of response…If a Filipino citizen is killed by a willful act that is, I think, very, very close to what we define as an act of war—and therefore we'll respond accordingly," he said. "And our treaty partners, actually, also hold that same standard," Marcos added of the hypothetical deadly scenario.
Marcos made the remarks during Q&A session following his keynote address at the Singapore-hosted Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defense summit. He had been asked whether a deadly Chinese water cannon attack would be a red line that triggers Manila's decades-old Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States.
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The threshold for triggering the defense pact and drawing the U.S. into a conflict with nuclear-armed Beijing has been an increasingly hot topic among analysts in recent months. The Marcos administration's pushback against China's expansion in the disputed South China Sea has been met with a forceful response by the Chinese coast guard, whose water cannon barrages left several Philippine sailors injured in March.
Marcos added that his country and its partners would take "joint action," without naming the U.S. He pointed out that Philippine nationals had already been injured in confrontations with China but that "thank God" a fatality has not occurred.
"Once we get to that point, we would certainly have crossed the Rubicon," he added. "Is that a red line? Almost certainly it's going to be a red line."
China asserts claims over nearly all of the South China Sea, citing historical rights. Its claims overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
An international tribunal at the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered a 2016 ruling that largely dismissed China's South China Sea claims. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated Bejing's position that the arbitral award "is illegal, null and void" and said "the world is not blind to the truth."
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese and Philippine foreign ministries and the U.S. Department of Defense with written requests for comment.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who met with Chinese counterpart Dong Jung on the sidelines of the summit, have both stressed that America's defense commitments to its Southeast Asian ally are "ironclad."
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