Let us fight China differently

I do not know of any Filipino who was not angered by the criminal act done by maritime assets of Communist China against a Philippine supply vessel in Ayungin Shoal last Saturday.

By the way, I refuse to call that country by its official name Peoples Republic of China as i insist to call it Communist China because communism is a godless ideology. We, all Filipinos, should be rightfully indignant by the savagery of the communists in violating our territorial sovereignty.

We must remember that the permanent International Arbitral Tribunal declared that the West Philippine Sea is a part of the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone. According to the tribunal, the Chinese 9-line claim has no legal basis and therefore the Chinese presence there, in all of its godlessness, is a violation of our sovereignty as it is a breach of international law.

To recall, two Chinese coast guard ships hit a Philippine navy-operated supply boat with water cannons causing injuries to Filipino crew men and inflicting physical damage to the Philippine ship.

It was a criminal act whatever description may be used and it was perpetrated by superior foreign forces within our territory. In truth, the Chinese, by crossing our seas and occupying some of our land mass have already waged an undeclared war against us. That Saturday’s crime was not the first. It was the latest and most serious. And why do the communist continue to do that? Because they know that we do not have the military capacity to defend our rights.

Having said the obvious, we proceed to ask what can all of us Filipinos do to help our oppressed cause? We do not have military force to wage even a defensive warfare against a world super power. In a military confrontation, our army cannot last a week. If the 1967 military conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states from 5 to 10 June 1967 was somewhat one sided in favor of Israel, our fate in case of war against Communist China will undoubtedly be worse than what the Arabs suffered.

We must put in our minds that we are actually helping Communist China finance its military adventurism against us. Trade records show that the Philippines is buying more of Chinese products than our selling to them Philippine goods and services.

To cite an example, in the year 2018, when Rodrigo Duterte was just in his second year of presidency, our imports from Communist China was valued US$22 billion. But according to a trade data released then by Philippine Statistics Authority, the Philippine exports to China reached a value of US$939.98 million.

Our exports to China were not even worth a billion dollars. In layman’s language, the communists enjoyed huge profits from our deals with them.

In the last few years, an angered Filipino nation has begun, in different degrees of combativeness, to adopt such programs as Boycott Made in China. I heaved a sigh of relief to learn that between December 2022 and December 2023 the exports of China have decreased by US$1.12B, to me, a significant minus 20.5%. Surely, China’s diminished profit margin must have somehow affected its budget for its maritime assets now plying Philippine waters.

Even if Communist China’s savage attacks on Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea cannot be financially minimized simply because we stop buying anything made in China, our complete boycott of all things made in China will show our solidarity as a nation to defend our territory in the most simple way. It is our plea that no one of more than a hundred million Filipinos buys anything produced by communist china.