China might as well just claim the entire Philippines

The“war of protests” continues as the Philippines slams China for landing planes on a reclaimed part of a reef both countries claim to be theirs. What makes this war “merrier” is that Vietnam was the first to protest this landing by China.

The Philippines regularly protests such provocative moves by China, using diplomatic language; and China responds by routinely throwing our protests into the wastebasket, then issues their own protests against the Philippines. But aside from their diplomatic protests, there is their newspaper which is believed to “report” only what the Chinese government actually wants it to, and what it wants us to read. And the contents are nowhere near the area of diplomacy. Some Chinese call us robbers!

China signs United Nations protocols and conventions, the formulation of which it took active part in, but now it says it will not honor what it has signed, like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Now, tell me again what “hypocrite” means.

I really believe the Chinese government laughs out loud every time it receives our protests. And that includes the Chinese ambassador here. China is not afraid of the United States and the entire western alliance. It is not afraid of any Asian country either.

The only country that could give China pause in whatever aggression it wants to indulge in is Russia simply because it knows that Russia does not care about human rights and what the rest of the world thinks of it. Exactly like China. And China knows that if Russia gets really angry, it will bite. That is something the West, with the United States leading it, cannot and will not do.

Assuming the Philippines will win the case it filed against China in the international court in The Hague, it will just be a hollow victory, because the ruling will not have any bite whatsoever and China has consistently declared it will not honor the verdict. The UN cannot enforce its verdict against China and China knows this. So, we will win a moral victory and the rest of the world will send out messages urging China to back down and follow the Unclos (to which it is a signatory) and China will just yawn and ask, “So, what’s new?”

What can the Philippine government do against China which controls our economy? We buy just about everything we need to survive from China, including illegally imported goods. I sometimes suspect our Chinese-Filipino taipans are more beholden to China than to the Philippine government. I still have to see and hear them protest China’s forcible seizure of our islands in the West Philippine Sea.

Why does not our government tell the Chinese government pointblank: “Why be content with those tiny islands, submerged and barely seen; why not just claim outright the entire Philippines as well?”

—ROCKY B. DENOGA, [email protected]