The United States considers its keen competition with China in the areas of semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals, both extraction and refining of rare earth minerals, as a national survival issue.
This situation has become an American emergency especially when the Donald Trump administration found itself unable to control Israel’s resolve to start a war of choice in West Asia, particularly against Iran.
But even before this shooting war, the contest between China and America had been pronounced, with each flexing their economic and military muscles. The US realized that if it is to continue engaging China in the race for technological innovation, it has to secure its supply chains of the needed minerals and other resources.
Consistent with the United States of America’s policy of scrimping on defense spending whenever possible, President Trump wanted all US allies to carry the burden of expenses and logistics for what ultimately are endeavors which will benefit America more than they would redound to material gains for its friends.
This is the rationale behind the US Department of State’s launching in December, 2025 of the Pax Silica Declaration which is nothing but a framework to hinder China’s momentum for dominance in the fields mentioned earlier.
The State Department described the Pax Silica initiative as a partnership with selected nations to reduce “coercive dependencies” and improve resilience across the full technology stack, from mineral extraction and processing through chip manufacturing and computing infrastructure.
The same initiative will also be an active framework for coordinating flagship projects and policy alignment across partner countries, including supply-chain mapping, investment and co-investment initiatives, and protection of critical infrastructure and sensitive technologies.
At the outset, six countries signed the declaration in Washington DC on Dec. 12, 2025. These are Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Others followed suit: Greece, Netherlands, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, India, Sweden, Finland, the Philippines and Norway. Canada and the territory of Taiwan were invited but have not yet signed.
What bothers many Filipinos is that Pax Silica will enable vast tracts of land in Pampanga and Tarlac (1,619 hectares) for development as an Economic Security Zone for artificial intelligence, rare earth minerals processing, etc. This complex will be given by the Marcos government to the US free of charge for 99 years, and the contract may be renewed. US common law will be observed inside the facility, making it similar to the US embassy and the EDCA sites.
For all intents and purposes, this will be a humongous US territory carved out of Central Luzon, and will definitely impact on the environment, energy and water resources of the region without regard for the sentiments of the residents.
Sadly, this is a done deal—an insidious one—without even passing the House of Representatives and the Senate, just the say-so of Malacañang Palace.
This arrangement is samlang, to say the least, and whoever supports Pax Silica in the Philippines is doing a despicable act.
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