On March 20, 2024, the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed to stand with the Philippines in response to the risk of Chinese conflict.  The cause of the tensions between China and the Philippines was caused by a video made by the Philippines showing two Philippine scuba divers cutting the line to a Chinese shoal line on September 25th of last year..  A few months later,  Chinese and Philippine aircraft carriers were seen colliding, which ignited arguments between the two countries.

In an interview with CNN on March 20, 2024, Blinken said, “Repeated violations of international law and the rights of the Philippines – water cannons, blocking maneuvers, close shadowing, other dangerous operations – these waterways are critical to the Philippines, to its security, to its economy, but they’re also critical to the interests of the region, the United States, and the world.”  According to a New York Times article written on Tuesday by Micheal Crowley, who traveled to China to meet with Blinken, in which Crowley wrote, “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned China on Tuesday that an ‘‘armed’ attack against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea would trigger a mutual self-defense pact between Washington and Manila…”

To ensure that the United States would not immediately engage in conflict with China, the Secretary of State headed to Manila on March 19th, 2024, publicly stating that the acts of aggression towards the Philippines from China, like ramming ships, were not crossing the thresholds of an “armed” attack.