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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The United States has continually worked to provoke and contain China, identifying Indonesia as a threat to its global hegemony and interests in Southeast Asia and using the Philippines to provoke and, perhaps eventually, even challenge China in the South China Sea over contested islands.
“Jakarta has been engulfed in fiery unrest in recent days, as thousands of protesters attempted to storm parliament in response to controversial changes to election laws,” notes the Orinoco Tribune, commenting on the massive demonstrations that have taken place in the Indonesian capital recently.
The online newspaper published a year-old analysis by investigative reporter Kit Klarenberg documenting an “extensive network of political, media, and civil society infrastructure in Indonesia aimed at facilitating regime change” and established by the CIA-linked National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to provoke regime change in the country of 275 million people. “After years of fostering insurrectionary fervour in the country, has the NED’s influence finally reached a boiling point?” the website questions.
Washington is frustrated with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. They sometimes use the term “aggressive neutrality” in the sense that the Southeast Asian country has been balancing between China and the US. Due to this, the White House did not want Widodo in power, and it can be expected that there will be more actions to try to depose him.
Widodo’s successor, Prabowo Subianto, is expected to take power next month, meaning that movements on the ground could accelerate if the US intends to press ahead with regime change in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
The US often implements political changes in certain countries through colour revolution, in which US-backed media, activists, and other civil society institutions are utilised to prepare the ground for coups, often by fomenting mass protests or insurrections, as seen in Georgia’s Rose Revolution (2003), Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2004), and Armenia’s Velvet Revolution (2018).
At the same time, the US is also seeking to interfere in the Philippines, offering to escort Philippine supply ships to an outpost the country maintains in the South China Sea to claim a disputed island. The Philippines has consistently maintained the outpost to keep its claim to the island alive, sending construction materials even after promising to send only food and basic supplies.
In this way, the US attempted to provoke China even after the Philippines promised to remove the rusty Sierra Madre vessel. Nonetheless, the archipelago country broke that promise, refueled the vessel, and said it would only transport food and water. However, it turns out they were stocking the vessel with construction materials and more to bolster their claim on the Second Thomas Shoal and establish it as if they were trying to claim squatter rights.
Once the US said it would also start escorting these ships, it took the provocation to another level as they had no rights to this area because they had no legal jurisdiction. They have no historical rights to this area, and the only thing they are trying to claim is that they have contested the Exclusive Economic Zone rights, which are also claimed by several other countries, including China, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, but that does not give them the right to occupy any of the islands there.
The Philippines seeks to internationalise the issue, leveraging alliances to mislead the public. By engaging with these uninvolved parties, including removing some trade-offs, the Philippines seeks to increase its bargaining power and maritime presence. Therefore, the US is the real mastermind behind the tension in the South China Sea by instructing Manila to cause trouble but avoiding a scenario that gets out of hand. The US is nonetheless mobilising its close allies to support Filipino claims.
It is recalled that on July 30, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Manila to discuss regional security with their Filipino counterparts — Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro — at the annual 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue at Camp Aguinaldo and announced $500 million in military aid, despite warnings from China that such interventions would only escalate regional tensions.
US officials said that about $125 million of the funding would be allocated to constructing and improving Philippine military bases where Manila has allowed US troops to be stationed under the two countries’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Despite Washington’s demonstration of commitment to Manila, the move only further increased tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.
Although it appears that all US attention is on Ukraine and Russia, as seen from events in Southeast Asia, maintaining global hegemony is still the ultimate American goal. This, in turn, creates crises as delicate balances are tipped, as seen with the Philippines heavily pivoting away from China, with potential colour revolutions simmering, like in Indonesia.
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the global south is waiting patiently for the demise of the american hegemon and the european colonialists. south america, africa, south east asia. the signs are everywhere. it’s like watching the fall of rome in our present day…
it’s the rebirth of rome. order out of the chaos they’re arranging
rubbish first obamas step dad, the world’s 11 th richest man ran indonesia and its not what msm or their lackeys tell you. second the pope just did his thing there. end of story.
all empires fail, the only thing that doesn’t fail is god. nothing temporal will find the fullness of god, but all good things yearn and search for it. may the murderers and torturers of innocents come to understand the sins they have committed.