China’s losing battle

ONE NATION is waging a lost battle against reason and the world. With its leaders’ stubborn defiant attitude toward the United Nations’ Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision to take up the Philippines’ case against China’s incursions into disputed islands and seas, China’s government could only be either bluffing or determined to wage war. The Philippines, for its part, is elated that it won the initial round in the legal battle in The Hague court and persists in walking the way of peace in its fight for the country’s dignity and for what belongs to it.

Let me share an excerpt of my speech last Oct. 30 as a guest speaker in a school ceremony marking the United Nations Day:

“The United Nations was officially founded on Oct. 24, 1945, in a San Francisco convention attended by 50 representatives from 50 different countries, with the Philippines and China in attendance. The term United Nations was coined by former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II as 26 nations pledged to fight together against the Axis Powers. The UN as a body was primarily created to maintain world peace and achieve mutual progress among its member-countries. Now these noble goals are at the risk of being nullified and obliterated.

“The crucial questions every peace-loving nation has today are as follows: Is the world going backwards? Why are laws, decency and common sense suddenly being rejected by a big and supposedly progressive nation? Is the age of barbarism coming back? Why is China refusing to recognize the UN international arbitration court? Will any nation succumb to bullying or invasion by another nation?

“We know the answers, and the United Nations has, within its mandate, the power to correct the wrong and prevent world anarchy or catastrophe (present and future). ‘This is the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty (Zechariah 4:6).’”

US Deputy State Secretary Antony Blinken stated: “The United States will support China 100 percent if they can prove (in a proper court) that it owns the islets, shoals and reefs that are at the heart of a dispute with the Philippines and other neighbors.”

Wonderful, the Filipino people and the rest of the world can do no less.

Respect is the name of the game.

—RENI M. VALENZUELA, [email protected]