Telltale Signs: The Dragon and the Mosquito
(A serious contrast to the previous reporting of the event below in this forum below)
On July 8, hundreds of Filipino Americans demonstrated in front of all six of China’s consular offices in the U.S. to protest China’s dispatch of its giant oil rig to the Spratly Islands which is within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines. On that same day, the front page of the Manila dailies featured a photo of China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, both smiling, with a caption that stated their agreement not to let the Spratly dispute affect friendly relations between the two countries.
China had invited Secretary Del Rosario only on July 7 to come to Beijing on July 8, the day before the global protests against China’s incursion in the Spratly Islands which was to occur also on July 8. While the timing of the July 8 events may lead some to conclude that there was a connection, it likely was just a coincidence.
The smiling Beijing photo-op moment may have been China’s psy-war response to the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval of the resolution on June 27 deploring
China’s use of force against Vietnamese and Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
The bipartisan resolution authored by Sen. Jim Webb and Sen. Jim Inhofe “reaffirms the strong support of the United States for the peaceful resolution of maritimeterritorial disputes in the South China Sea, and pledges continued efforts to facilitate a multilateral, peaceful process to resolve these disputes.”
It was China’s way of telling the Americans: “What disputes are you Yankees talking about? We are committed to peaceful process. Right, Philippines?”
The Xinhua news press release accompanying the Beijing photo-op stated: “Both ministers exchanged views on the maritime disputes and agreed not to let the maritime disputes affect the broader picture of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.”
Xinhua news also reported that Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, widely viewed as China’s top leader in 2013 when current President Hu Jintao steps down, also met with Secretary Del Rosario and he described their meeting as “productive”.
But "productive" is not how Secretary Del Rosario described it when he returned to Manila after the two day photo-op. When asked at a news conference if China had assured him that it would stop military intrusions into the West Philippine Sea even as it promised to continue to dialogue with the Philippines regarding the territorial dispute, Secretary Del Rosario said “no”.
Del Rosario said that he proposed to China’s officials that their maritime dispute be adjudicated by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, an independent judicial body established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to handle disputes. But China also said “no”.
"While we base our claim on international law, specifically UNCLOS,” Del Rosario said, China officials base their claim on "historic rights," referring to the 120 A.D. map of the Han Dynasty that identifies the Spratlys as the Nansha Islands. As Ted Laguatan pointed out, by that absurd argument, Italy can also lay claim to most of Europe as they were all in the ancient maps of the Roman Empire.
The only agreement reached in Beijing, Del Rosario said, was "we agreed to disagree."
Certainly Beijing did not agree to recall back to Shanghai the $892 million deepwater semi-submersible drilling platform (Ocean Petroleum 981) that China Daily reported as having left Shanghai on May 24, 2011 bound for the South China Sea. According to the China press, this is “the world’s most advanced super oil rig” capable of operating at a water depth of 3,000 meters and drilling depth of 12,000 meters, with nine power generators on the platform that can provide electricity for nearly 200,000 people. It took China three years to build this rig which is set to start operating in August.
At its peak, China expects to draw $50 billion worth of oil annually from what FilAm protestors at the China consulate rallies said was “Philippine soil! Philippine oil!”
China is already counting on the future oil to be drawn from the Spratlys to fuel China’s massive energy needs and it is deploying its lone aircraft carrier, newly-purchased from Russia, to the West Philippine Sea to protect it.
In an ominous note, Ellen Tordesillas reported in her July 11, 2011 column that “Hardliners in the Chinese Military Academy are raring to teach China’s neighbors “a lesson” for intruding into the South China Sea, which they consider part of their national territory.”
These “hardliners”, according to Shen Hong-Fang, professor and senior research fellow at the Center of Southeast Asian studies at Xiamen University, believe that “it is the right time to adopt necessary measures to teach some countries a lesson.”
Shen told participants at the two-day Conference on the South China Sea held in Manila last week that they believe it justifiable “for China to launch a war against the invaders.” Shen reiterated previous declarations of China’s officials that the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is a “core national interest,” just like Tibet and Taiwan.
While this issue is the top news story of Filipino community newspapers throughout the United States this week, it only merits occasional mention in the Manila dailies which are preoccupied with stories about Davao Mayor Sara Duterte and the sheriff she punched as well as the Philippine bishops who received SUVs from former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Out of the ten columns in the Philippine Daily Inquirer print edition, only one was devoted to the Spratlys issue and it was by Rep. Walden Bello, who reprinted the questions asked of him by a China newspaper and his responses. When asked if war with China over the Spratlys was inevitable, he responded that he did not believe so although “naval encounters are a possibility”. But, he wrote, “China must really climb down from its aggressive posture, otherwise, a chain of events may ensue that goes out of control… Multilateral diplomacy for a comprehensive settlement of the West Philippine Sea issue is the best way to avoid such an unintended conflict.”
Unfortunately, China only favors bilateral talks between China and the Philippines, the giant dragon against the tiny mosquito. Fortunately for the mosquito, he has relatives all over the world who are willing to come to his aid.
For more information about the activities of the mosquito's relatives, log on to epeoplepower.ph or usp4gg.org.
(Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800).
