China Coast Guard drives away Philippine vessels intruding into waters of China's Nansha Islands The Philippines will reportedly not participate in a US-Japan-Australia joint exercise in the South China Sea this week, a move analysts said on Monday showed that the Philippines is trying to find a balance under US pressure to take advantage of Manila as a foothold in the region against China. The US, Japan and Australia are planning to hold a joint navy drill in the South China Sea off the western Philippines this week, with all three countries deploying aircraft and helicopter carriers, namely the USS America , the JS Izumo and the HMAS Canberra , AP reported on Monday. Commanders of the three countries' warships are set to meet with their Filipino counterparts in Manila after the offshore drills, the report said. Led by the US, the trilateral exercise serves to maintain US hegemony, which in their eyes is being challenged by China, Chen Xiangmiao, director of the World Navy Research Center at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Monday. "The US military sees the South China Sea as a region to contest with China, with the other region being the Taiwan Straits. That is why the US wants to have the Philippines as a foothold in the region," Chen said. Under this thinking, earlier this year, the US and the Philippines held their largest-ever Balikatan combat exercise, and the Philippines opened four additional military bases for US use. The AP report linked the upcoming trilateral exercise to the recent tensions between China and the Philippines over the Ren'ai Jiao（also Ren'ai Reef）of the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea. China Coast Guard on August 5 drove away Philippine vessels intruding into waters near the Chinese reef in an attempt to deliver building materials to an old Philippine warship illegally grounded at the Ren'ai Jiao since 1999. The US, Japan and Australia were among countries that expressed support for the Philippines over the incident, AP reported. However, the Philippines would not be part of the exercise due to "military logistical limitations," AP said. Using so-called military logistical limitations as an excuse could be a part of the Philippines' tactic to seek a balance between major powers, because a complete dependence on the US could make it the biggest victim, Chen said. With many domestic problems to be solved, the Marcos Jr administration's priority should be development, Chen said. "The Philippines needs China in terms of economic development, and the US cannot provide what it needs," he said. If the Philippines is used by the US as a forward deployment base in a potential military conflict in the South China Sea, or worse, if the Philippines is instigated by the US to challenge China militarily, it would be the Philippines that suffers from the flames of war, while the US homeland is located thousands of kilometers away, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told