📷: Mayor Sebastian Z. Duterte welcomes His Excellency Jing Quan, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Philippines, on Monday, January 26, in Davao City. (Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte | FB)
by Diego Morra
The intense Chinese clapback on what the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said was a caricature illustrating the unequal dispute between Beijing and Manila over Panatag Shoal and other maritime features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS.) Despite its “cabbage approach” or creeping occupation of such features, Beijing is touchy about “smears” directed at its leaders, particularly Xi Jinping, indicating that despite the harsh rhetoric that requires a disputant to also have a thick hide, Chinese leaders are grievously onion-skinned.
Worse, China practically wants the PCG and the entire Filipino nation to stop criticizing Beijing for its harassment of fishermen and irrational claim to features within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines that had been delineated in ancient as within the Philippine archipelago. This is akin to China’s claiming Taiwan, which was never ruled for a second by Chinese dynasties, its various peoples surviving for 6,000 years without dynastic overlords. Beijing insists on its historic rights to practically the entire South China Sea (SCS) but it has not produced a single map, mahjong tiles or opium pipes from any maritime feature within the Philippine territorial jurisdiction. There isn’t such a map save for the 1602 Ricci-Li map that showed no dynastic control of any part of the Philippine archipelago. Nambobola ka na nga, may gana ka pang mangamkam! It is shameless, to say the least.
With the discovery of a new gas field near Malampaya, expect China to ratchet up its propaganda assaults. In fact, the arrival of Chinese Ambassador Jiang Quan recently, and his visiting Davao City Acting Mayor Baste Duterte, of all people, heralds a more active pursuit of a vigorous pressure campaign in Panatag Shoal, which Beijing declared to be a “nature reserve” while its Coast Guard vessels and permanently stationed fisheries militia boats continue to dump bilge water and other waste in such a “protected” site. The latest gas find in Palawan announced two days before China started saber-rattling on Jan. 21 has gas that can supply power to 5.7-million households, 9,500 buildings and 200,000 schools for one year. The Malampaya East-1 (MAE-1) gas field holds 2.6-billion cubic meters of gas (98-billion cu ft) and can generate 14-billion kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity annually.
The Chinese Embassy is venting its spleen over a caricature that it claimed “smeared” President Xi Jinping, with the sketch showing a man flexing his muscle while holding s small boat with a Philippine flag. An indignant embassy deputy spokesman Guo Wei immediately lashed out at PCG Commodore Jay Tarriela, who is the PCG spokesman for the WPS. Guo demanded an apology but Tarriela curtly told the diplomat that the exercise of free speech and fair comment is protected by the Philippine Constitution. Guo then rebutted that freedom of speech ends where Xi’s nose begins. If China can dish out insults and flout Philippine territorial integrity daily, why the ruckus over a caricature? So now, a cartoon is a loaded pistol and Chinese Embassy lodged a diplomatic protest to ban legitimate comment. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) backed Tarriela.
By prattling over a caricature, the Chinese Embassy is reminding all Filipinos that it is its duty to protect, project and promote Chinese interest, particularly in the Manila, where a Chinatown was established in 1594. For sure, Beijing regards each Chinatown to be fair game for its Ministry of Public Security (MPS), which explains why China was able to organize police outposts in Asia, Italy, UK and even the US, only to be subjected to universal condemnation after reports of harassment and torture leaked. Give Beijing half a chance and they’ll go the whole hog, as what has happened in Africa and in some Pacific island-nations.
With these illegal police outposts, China has expanded the coverage of its National Security Law (NSL) far beyond China, Macau and Hong Kong as well as the territories that China had grabbed from eight countries through border disputes. Rusia is the only country that snatched more than 200,000 sq miles of Chinese territory in Siberia. Under NSL, it is a crime for a Chinese citizen or foreigner to mock, repudiate, criticize, smear or insult the Chinese leadership. Many Chinese have been sentenced for expressing their views in other countries. In the case of Filipinos who have criticized China’s territorial claims in the WPS, they are banned from entering China. The NSL has jurisdiction over the entire world, or wherever there is a Chinatown.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has condemned Xi’s “assailant” who had reaffirmed the adage that the pen is mightier than a sword. Guo asked “the Philippine side to undo the negative impact as soon as possible and stop tolerating the smear campaign and provocations, lest they disrupt normal diplomatic communication or further harm bilateral relations.” Chinese Embassy Deputy Spokesman Guo Wei followed suit, declaring pompously that freedom of speech should not be used to malign others, particularly foreign leaders. It is Tarriela’s duty to champion Philippine interest since he is the PCG spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (WPS.)
Speaking as though a spear was thrust into Xi Jinping’s chest, the twin statements betrayed a Janus-faced China: One that threatens and another one so condescending it teaches Filipinos how to exercise their freedom of speech. How do you respect a country that has never stopped its criminal syndicates from dumping shabu in the Philippines, or smuggling fake cigarettes to the discomfiture of Lucio Tan and other manufacturers. Neither had it clarified why its citizens have scammed the rest of humanity through pig slaughtering operations in the Philippines that entailed the deployment of enforcers who has tortured and even murdered employees who did not meet their quotas. If you think Guo Wei is alone in carrying the torch for China, you are wrong. The are Filipinos snitching for the embassy, many of them columnists and officers of “friendship clubs’ that feed scribes with barely edible bread. The troll army is, of course, a vast network that doubles as promoters of the Sara Duterte school of irrationality. Pedro Paterno is back at work after 114 years.#
