The many invasions of China

So many of the burning issues troubling our country today has something to do with China. One wonders if our government is looking at all these issues from a bird’s-eye view, to find out if there’s orchestration going on in all these troubles. Simply put, is our country already the subject of multiple forms of “invasion” by China? An inventory of all these troubles is in order.

First on the list are obviously the troubles that China is giving us in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which we also call as West Philippine Sea. China has occupied and built several artificial islands in shoals and reefs inside our EEZ. China physically harasses Philippine vessels with nonconventional weapons like water cannons and laser lights. China maintains hundreds of vessels that patrol and shoo away our vessels from our EEZ. Most recently, China announced that it will arrest and detain our people found within our own EEZ. For all intents and purposes, China has invaded and occupied our EEZ.

Second, we have political leaders and society personalities who are loudly opposed to any form of military cooperation with western countries, but who are absolutely silent on even the most brazen violations committed by China against our republic. For these leaders, any form of assistance from western countries, like the United States, is a sure invitation to war with China. For them, any whimper of protestation against China will absolutely lead to war. To these leaders, we have no choice but to stay silent and lie flat on the ground even when China subjects us to cruel and humiliating treatment. All we can do and should do, they subtly tell off fellow Filipinos, is to beg for mercy and pray for benevolence from China. China has invaded the ranks of our leaders and co-opted them as its local proxies.

Third, when it built its artificial islands cum military installations within our EEZ, China had to source out and transport massive quantities of landfill materials to create them. Our landmasses are the closest sources of landfill. There have been past incidents of massive destruction of our hills and mountains, and dredging of our seashores and rivers, with materials loaded on foreign ships. Our government has not come out with definitive findings discounting widespread suspicion that our country supplied the landfill materials used by China in building its artificial islands. As China is again suspected of causing destruction to Scarborough Shoal—potential indications of another artificial island building—our government must come out with findings if China has surreptitiously invaded mainland Philippines, obtaining land that it used to create artificial islands inside our EEZ. We are a nation of nincompoops if we have allowed and will continue to allow China to sneakily invade us through such brazen means.

Fourth, Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) manned by mainland Chinese citizens continue to thrive in our country. They’ve spread their operations beyond the big cities, as shown by the huge Pogo in Bamban, Tarlac, where the mayor is the controversial Alice Guo. There’s an abundance of criminal deeds associated with Pogos such as human smuggling, sex trade, and money laundering. Is the election of Mayor Alice Guo—ostensibly because of her connection with and access to Pogo money—only the tip of the iceberg? How much of Pogo revenues will be used to manipulate our 2025 elections in aid of senators, congressmen, governors, and mayors who will act as Chinese puppets in our country? Are Pogo revenues being generated and parked in our country in order to finance a 2028 presidential candidate who will serve as governor general of our state as a de facto Chinese province? Is Pogo money being used to bribe our police and military officials? Our government must extensively investigate if we are being invaded with Chinese money meant to transform our nation into China’s vassal state.

Fifth, propaganda aimed at causing disinformation among Filipinos are proliferating online. They malign leaders who espouse our national interest. They vilify any form of cooperation with countries whose vested interest coincides with ours in the West Philippine Sea and the high seas. They extol China as our only ticket to economic prosperity. These disinformation platforms, and the trolls that spread them, can also be employed to influence our elections, with the agenda of helping candidates whose loyalties rest with China. Most definitely, our cyberspace has been invaded by China.

Our country’s attention and resources are focused on military preparations to defend our islands against any invasion by China. Lamentably, we are losing sight of the fact that there are many forms of invasion by China that are already unfolding in our midst.

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