CHICAGO (jGLi) – When China looks the other way when the Philippine government raises concerns over Chinese incursions into Spratlys Islands that the Philippines considers its own, the giant neighbor is nothing but a good-for-nothing bully who hungers for attention.
So, what does the Philippines need to do? It should stand up like David and tell Goliath not to mess up with the Philippines.
How? By strengthening its communications apparatus, not its military capabilities.
If the Philippines will document every Chinese incursion and report it to the international media and the United Nations, China will embarrass itself and would go elsewhere to pick a fight with others it thinks it has dominion over.
Under the present atmosphere in international relations, if a tiny nation is being bullied by a giant neighbor, that tiny nation can still exist and cannot just be totally erased from the map just like that.
Take the case of Cuba. It has had its ideological differences with its giant United States neighbor for a very long time. But Cuba, one of the three territories, including the Philippines, ceded by Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, remains intact, despite numerous sanctions imposed on it by the U.S. And Cuba remains a member of the United Nations.
Despite its huge military arsenal, China cannot even intimidate Taiwan into submission even if it considers Taiwan as one of its provinces. And so, why would China even intimidate the Philippines thousands of miles away and does not even have any ascendancy to speak of?
So, what happens to the Philippines if the Philippines breaks relations with China? The Philippines will survive! It is not the end of the world. China needs our business more than the Philippines needs China’s business.
The Philippines will still keep its pride and integrity intact before the community of nations. It will also send a red flag that will make China think twice in allowing further intrusions into the Spratlys.
The Philippines can always take its business to other territories, among them Taiwan, which will surely sting Beijing no end.
ONE-CHILD CHINA POLICY DOES NOT CURE POVERTY
Sometimes, I think the “one-child” policy of China that is supposed to arrest the exploding Chinese population is not working.
Because if this human-rights challenged population policy is working, I don’t think Chinese fishermen will be sailing thousands of nautical miles away from Chinese territory just to fish at Spratlys.
Despite this population policy, China still has one million more births than deaths every five weeks. And this should make the case for Filipinos that because of Chinese run-away population, it is intruding into the Philippine territory as China is running out of its own natural resources!
These Chinese fishermen are like the poor Filipinos in rural areas evicted by wealthy landlords and are forced to squat in the cities.
Too bad, I could no longer advocate for the Chinese “one-child” policy that has even induced thousands of late-term abortions as a Philippine model to support the controversial “RH bill.” Frankly, overpopulation is root cause of poverty. But that will be another column.
As I said to counteract Chinese aggression, the Philippines should review its foreign policy by not investing too much of its policy in one basket — the United States.
It should also diversify.
For instance, it should strenghten its alliances with other developing countries, like the Non-Aligned Nations of which it is a long-standing member.
In fact, it can aspire to be a “neutral country” like Switzerland, which has never been involved in any war for almost 200 years. Switzerland has only joined the United Nations in 2002. Yet it is one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic product, with a nominal per capita GDP of $69,838. And after all, the Philippines, like Switzerland, does not take part in armed conflicts in other countries, but is part of several peacekeeping missions around the world.
CHINA HAS NO CHANCE AGAINST THE WORLD
If China realizes that we are allied with many countries, and not just one superpower (the United States) and if it realizes that the Philippines is standing its ground, China cannot just intimidate the Philippines. I believe China cannot stand against the world. China should bear in mind that a part can never be bigger than a whole.
If China keeps bullying the Philippines, then, the Philippines can always take the matter up with the United Nations with Non-Aligned Nations behind it.
But if the Philippines would really want to arm itself against further Chinese intrusions for self-defense, it should act as if it is buying a used-car, sometimes euphemistically called pre-owned car.
At the moment, the Philippines cannot afford to buy the top-of-the line military hardware that could cost the Philippines an arm and a leg. And even if the Philippines sells its soul to obtain those armaments, there is no assurance that those weapons will repulse those Chinese intruders.
The Philippines should first shop around for those materiel pegged at world-market rates, not just priced by one weapons supplier, like the United States. The Philippines should make sure that the spare parts and supplies of those weapons are reasonably priced and are available from different sources. The reason is simple: if you sour out in your relations with your one and only supplying country, then, the Philippines will be at the mercy of that lone supplying-weapons seller. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)