Ethnic discrimination

Much has been said lately about racism and Sinophobia (a fear of and prejudice against the Chinese), mainly in connection with allegations that a university in the province of Cagayan, operated by religious sisters, has been accepting many students from the People’s Republic of China (for simplicity, I’ll just use “mainland China”), who are then described, with no evidence, as possible spies for the communists because they come from the mainland.

Filipino-Chinese civic leader Teresita Ang-See of the Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran and the Bahay Tsinoy in Intramuros, have decried these accusations as “racist” and has wondered about the timing, coming at a time when the United States is trying to build up various regional alliances, all against one enemy: mainland China.

I agree with Ang-See that the Philippines should take a neutral stand rather than being used by the US against China, or by China against the US. Our geographical position makes it particularly dangerous for us to align ourselves with one superpower against the other.

Some people will argue this is realpolitik, dealing with the realities of global politics, but is it? We know how these alliances can be so very fragile and fleeting. For example, US elections in November this year might well return Donald Trump to power, a war freak who would not hesitate to use Filipinos as cannon fodder to MAGA (Make America Great Again) by waging war on China.

Let’s get back to the Chinese student scare going around. “Racism” isn’t quite the right term to use because “race” is an artificial category. Many Filipinos, Taiwanese, and southern mainland Chinese actually share genes and may be described as Austronesian, more a linguistic term but also sometimes used to refer to common genetic origins.

What we see right now is discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality, using the vague term “Chinese” or “Intsik” (a derogatory term for whoever looks “Chinese”).

The problem is that perceived ethnicity is dependent on almost arbitrary criteria like physical appearance (in particular, “singkit” eyes, fair skin) or speaking a language that sounds unfamiliar (many Filipinos mix up Japanese and one of the many Chinese languages and dialects).

We could dismiss this as fleeting and harmless but we forget that the Philippines does have a long history of anti-Chinese sentiment, going back to the Spanish colonial period, when there were three huge massacres of Chinese in Manila. In the more recent past, we saw how many Filipinos just didn’t care, during the 1990s, when there was a brutal spate of kidnappings for ransom—665 between 1990 and 1996 and these were only the cases reported. These included outright killings, rapes, and torture. Those kidnappings were not random: they grew out of ethnic discrimination and stereotyping: if you looked Intsik, you were seen as having money, ripe for kidnapping.

The kidnappings decreased only with Chinese-Filipino organizations pointing out this was leading to local Chinese sending their children abroad, as well as a flight of capital, not just of Chinese-Filipino but of foreign business people and investments in general.

I fear that if we continue with the current “Chinese spies” scare, we run the risk of harassment of Intsik targeting anyone from the mainland, from Taiwan, from Singapore, and local Filipinos deemed Intsik because of physical features … or even having a monosyllabic surname.

We’ve had foreign students for decades; in fact, we were a favored destination for foreign students in the post-World War II years, seen as having high standards for professions like medicine, dentistry, engineering.

Today, Chinese students come from the mainland and Taiwan mainly to learn English but others do apply as well for other undergraduate and graduate programs. I recently met one student who is taking education and I was initially surprised with her choice. She explained that our education schools are more innovative and “open,” which reminded me of visits to China where I did see how regimented the classes could be. One time, a student was scolded for directing a simple clarificatory question to the visiting professor. (Guess who?)

We know there are diploma mills in the country that may be targeting foreign students for easy money. If the government is to conduct an investigation, then focus on the schools’ standards and policies, rather than on students’ nationality or ethnicity.

Let me end with a little-known fact. Did you know that in the Philippines, we have medical colleges that offer a five-year degree MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine) program specifically tailored for Indian students? Graduates can practice medicine in India, but not in the Philippines.

We are good (and, sigh, low-cost) educators. We will lose that niche if we become identified with discriminatory policies against particular ethnicities or nationalities.

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