If China is a friend, we don't need enemies
China is in bad faith, treating us with insult and condescension. It is not an ally but a bully. It does not deal with us fairly and continues to insult us. The US is also a bully especially under Trump. But we have never been insulted by the Americans the way the Chinese deride us.
While we support the president in all his other decisions, we are deeply concerned, and even disappointed with this administration's soft, even subservient, approach towards China. This bully engages in double talk. Its envoys smile at our diplomats but they violate our exclusive maritime zones behind our back. China's Xi Jinping is playing Chinese poker with President Duterte and his people continue to build military structures in the contested areas of the South China Sea. I am sure China is sending many spies to Manila and all over the archipelago and is preparing to mount an aggressive invasion into our territory.
We can never trust China. Its more than a billion people need more territories. They need more food and our marine resources are rich sources of maritime products. China needs oil and the Spratlys has a big depository of oil and gas. Besides the South China Sea is a strategic maritime passage of any US or British attack against China. With Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines as US allies, China can be isolated and surrounded by enemies. But with President Duterte warming up to China and being antagonistic to the US, the balance of power has been changed. China is very happy with Duterte's policies, but instead of reciprocating, the Chinese military is building up in the Kagitingan, Zamora, and Panganiban reefs and have given them Chinese names.
Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano should tell China we do not relish the double talk. The DFA should at least send a note verbale for every nail that China brings into the Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, and Subi Reef (the international names of Panganiban, Zamora, and Kagitingan). If we are tough enough to tell America to go to hell why can't we be as harsh to China? China does not have a trade relation as big as America, they do not give us aid and assistance as huge as the European Union. Why are we too harsh to nations that have always helped us in natural disasters and armed conflicts? What has China given us? Drug laboratories and tons and tons of shabu? China has executed many Filipino couriers of illegal drugs but we have treated Chinese drug lords with kid gloves.
We support President Duterte on Kuwait, Boracay, martial law in Mindanao, Federalism, and the Bangsa Moro homeland. We are all-out in defending him against human rights activists deriding his war against drugs. We do not tolerate extra-judicial killing and summary executions but we stand with him that such aberrations are not government-sponsored. We support him in his love for the soldiers, policemen, teachers, and OFWs. We even support him when he curses the US, the EU, and international human rights advocates. We support him in our effort to deport that Australian nun who play politics and interfere in our domestic affairs. But on China, with all due respect, we call upon him to convene a council to reexamine our foreign policy against that arrogant, devious, and high-handed superpower.
It is high time to tell China that we are small but we have sovereignty, and national dignity enough to refuse being insulted right in front of our noses.
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