‘A clear signal to China’: US task force backs Philippine operations in South China Sea

“I visited the Command and Control Fusion Center in Palawan today. I also met with some American service members deployed to US Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region,” Austin wrote in a social media post on November 19.

Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst at Rand Corporation, said the deployment of US soldiers to the shoal was a tacit acknowledgement of the Philippine position in the disputed waterway.

“This is a clear signal to China,” Grossman added.