Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Monday, 17 June 2024.
- PHILIPPINE AND CHINESE VESSELS COLLIDE: The China Coast Guard (CCG) issued a statement that a Philippine supply ship headed to the BRP Sierra Madre on the Second Thomas Shoal was driving erratically collided with a CCG vessel after the CCG issued multiple warnings and employed “control measures.”
- The Philippines did not deny a collision but declared the claims as “deceptive and misleading.”
Why It Matters: The CCG can use this pretext to ratchet up “control measures,” usually water cannons and small boat swarms, into arrests to prevent the Philippines from conducting resupply missions. Both sides appear ready to escalate as the Chinese deployed a flat-decked amphibious assault ship on short notice to the Spratly Islands over the weekend, and Philippine President Marcos called on Filipinos to “be courageous even at the expense of our comfort and security” in his Eid’l Adha address. – J.V.
- Global Rollup
- “Taiwan is already an independent country,” Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said at the Chinese Military Academy centenary celebration in Southern Taiwan. Lai also encouraged cadets to “defend national sovereignty.”
- Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense purchased 968 military and civilian drones this year, according to a legislative report, in an effort to have over 3,000 by 2027. The country also began mass-producing three unmanned combat aerial vehicle types for its Navy, Army, and Marine Corps this year.
- China is expanding its nuclear arsenal while the big four nuclear powers (Russia, the U.S., the U.K., and France) deconstruct or maintain their stockpiles, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. (China’s arsenal is still estimated to be 1/10th of the United States’. China is likely not building for a nuclear war but to achieve parity and maintain its internal narrative of civilizational greatness. – J.V.)
- Peru’s Ambassador to the U.S. is offering American investors an opportunity to build a new port that will counter China’s Chancay port in Peru. The proposed port location would be 700 miles south of Chancay and give easy access to Chilean, Argentinian, and Bolivian exports.
THAT’S A WRAP: This does it for today’s edition. Thank you for reading. If you know folks who would also like to receive this email, would you please forward it to them? We appreciate you spreading the word. – M.S.