Whereas the United States established diplomatic relations with the Philippines on July 4, 1946, and the two countries have since enjoyed expanded and positive relations; Whereas there are over 4,000,000 United States citizens of Philippine ancestry in the United States; Whereas the United States and the Philippines have a strong and mutually beneficial trade relationship, with more than $18,900,000,000 in goods and services traded during 2020; Whereas the People’s Republic of China continues to use its Coast Guard and its Merchant Marine to violate the Philippines sovereignty, including in the Scarborough Shoal, Whereas Chinese Communist Party propaganda now assert claims based on a so-called ten-dash line , after a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitral tribunal ruled that China’s nine-dashed line had no legal basis ; Whereas in 1994, the People’s Republic of China unlawfully seized Mischief Reef and have since constructed 20 artificial islands that extends the operational capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army with the aim of expanding its presence and reinforcing their illegitimate claims to the South China Sea; Whereas the People’s Republic of China is asserting its sweeping claims over the South China Sea by disrupting the regular resupply of the BRP Sierra Madre, a Philippine Navy transport ship, based in the Second Thomas Shoal, by shooting water cannons at Philippine Coast Guard vessels and using military-grade lasers to blind its crew; Whereas, on April 3, 2023, the Biden administration announced plans today to expand the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Arrangement to include four new sites to strengthen interoperability and allow the United States and the Philippines to better address shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific region