US must resist China's aggression toward the Philippines

The risk of a confrontation between the United States and China over the Philippines is growing. The Philippines is an American treaty defense ally, similar to NATO and Japan.

That matters because Chinese coast guard vessels caused willful structural damage to Philippine vessels in the Sabina Shoal and a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares into the path of a Philippine aircraft near Scarborough Shoal in recent days. These incidents have occurred within waters and airspace recognized by just about every nation except for China as being within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone.