(I did this story for VERA Files. It was sent to all media outlets.)
Shen Hong-Fang, professor and senior research fellow at the Center of Southeast Asian studies at Xiamen University, spoke of “a new upsurge” of Chinese nationalism set off by claims made by some Asian countries, including the Philippines, over territory China considers its own.
“Some suggested that it is the right time to adopt necessary measures to teach some countries a lesson,” Shen said, startling participants at the two-day Conference on the South China Sea held in Manila last week.
She added there are those who think it justifiable “for China to launch a war against the invaders.”
The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have staked claims over some of the 160 islands that constitute the Spratlys in the South China Sea. These countries, along with Indonesia which is a non-claimant, have filed protests before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) over the “nine-dash line map” China submitted to prove its claim.
That map practically covers the whole of the South China Sea and encroaches over the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone of some its neighbors, the Philippines included.
Brunei and Taiwan are also claiming parts of the Spratlys.
In its note verbale last April 14, China accused the Philippines of having “started to invade and occupy some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha (Spratly) Islands.”
Asked by Paranaque Rep. Roilo Golez about the role of the Chinese Military Academy in the leadership’s decisions, Shen said it is “a very influential group. ”
The Chinese Military Academy, formally known as the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS), is the highest-level research institute and center of military sciences of the People’s Liberation Army which is a major force in the Chinese government.
A Philippine diplomat who requested anonymity said Shen would not be making such strong statements without the approval of the Chinese government.
She quoted a published statement by Han Xudong, an army colonel and a professor at the PLA’s National Defense University (NDU), that “China’s comprehensive national strength especially in military capabilities is not yet enough to safeguard all of the core national interests.”
Golez expressed concern over what China would do “if their ‘national strength especially in military capabilities’ would be enough to take care of all core national interests.”
Shen also quoted another NDU professor, Zhang Zhongzhao, as saying that “the best time of solving the territory disputes has already passed” and that “diplomatic negotiations alone cannot solve the problem.”
She described Zhang as “a well-known military theorist,” and further quoted him saying that to defend national sovereignty, the Chinese should have the “courage to use the sword if it is really needed.”
Shen said the Chinese government is under public pressure to stand firm on the South China Sea. “If China lost more territory to foreign states, the national honor would be under attack and the people and the army would question the legitimacy of the government,” she said.
“It is of utmost importance that the government is not considered by people or the army as internally or externally weak which in turn could have severe political consequences,” she added.
Included in Shen’s recommendations to ease tension in the South China Sea is joint exploration in disputed areas. The Philippines already took this step during the term of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when it started a Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) with China and Vietnam, which was completed in 2008. At least 70 percent of the coverage of the JMSU is in areas claimed by the Philippines. The constitutionality of the agreement is being questioned in the Supreme Court.
The Manila SCS conference was organized by the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the National Defense College of the Philippines and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.
Bakit naman kasi nalaman ng taga China kung ano ang laman ng mga lugar na to eh ang layo nila, practically nasa bakuran lang natin to?
JMSU, Jug. Joint Marine Seismic Understaking. It was their ship and equipment that was used. Vietnam provided the scientists and we were supposed to interpret the data.
But I talked with a DOE official and he said the data they were given were blurred. They were so dependent on what the Chinese would provide them.
Why, in the first place did the government enter into such a lopsided agreement.
Arroyo and JDV should answer to the Filipino people.
Dang! I agree Ellen. JMSU is the cause of this all. Correct, GMA and JDV must be held liable and must provide answers on their motive and intentions in allowing such a blatant intrusion into our territory by the Chinese and Vietnamese. I would like to think, that Vietnam was included at the last minute after careful calculated risk by both China and GMA-JDV
they thought it best to include Vietnam to provide a smokescreen.
In depth investigation must be conducted, as I firmly believe that both GMA and JDV has sold us out to the Chinese for their bloody greed. They must be tried for treason.
In one of news interviews with JDV few months back, he was suggesting that we cooperate with China for the joint exploration. Pak U JdV! We cooperate with China to cover your tracks. Idiot! and many more expletives.
teka, magkano na ba utang natin sa china? mamaya ginawang collateral yan at hihilain na lang nila kasi hindi tayo nagbayad? 🙂
O baka may nag ahente na dyan tapos tumanggap na ng earnest money? 🙂
Was there a claim already from China and Vietnam prior to this discovery?
I have from the start of this JMSU action several years back, been appealing for filipino soldiers among us thru different media forums to arrest GMA for such acts of treason. This is a basic function and duty of soldiers of a nation. But there was no response from any one in whatever form. As if this idea is such a big joke. Now this is the cost to the whole nation, our nation, for those who have heard this appeal yet have taken it as a joke.
I am appealing once again to filipinos concerned among us to this time take my idea into consideration. My idea is for everyone of us filipinos to answer these questions before we decide on actions to take.
The chinese have already been inside our very own main homeland in possession of centers of control of our development for decades. They have displaced us filipinos from our source of economic sustenance by their control of our industries and taking over of our properties. They have destroyed our environment with their wanton pollution of our marine environment by their factories and smuggling of our marine resources. They have polluted our minds by their perverse business ethics and bribing practices.
On the other hand, why have we become so weak in our hold of our peripheral areas for decades when in the 1900s, we, a newly born nation then, were able to sustain for years, the defense of our nation against the invasion of not only a foreign nation, but the emerging most powerful nation in the world at that time, the United States of the north americans? The aggressor forces had to resort to massive kidnappings and exterminations of civilians among us before those of the defending forces among us were compelled to give in to their demands for us to surrender to them.
With the present situation, what then, should be our priorities:
1) we keep possession and control of our peripheral territory like Spratleys along our border, but we continue abandoning possession and control of our very main homeland with its rich natural including human resources and of our development as has been for decades, to the north americans and the chinese;
2) we abandon possession and control of our peripheral territory like Spratlys along our border, but we recover possession and control of our main homeland with its rich natural and human resources and of our development from the north americans and the chinese;
3) we keep possession and control of our peripheral territory like Spratleys along our border, and we recover possession and control of our main homeland with its rich natural and human resources and of our development from the north americans and the chinese?
How can we expect to have a national defense system that functions effectively in defending our nation from foreign invasion, when possession and control of our main homeland with its rich natural including human resources and of our development, have been in the hands of the north americans and the chinese? The results of their conflict of perceptions, concepts, interests, values, and visions, with that of ours have been precisely their maneuvers to take over and perpetuate control of access to our resources, of direction of our development, and of centers of power. Why have they been able to take over control?
At present, our defense system cannot identify the foreign invaders who are already in our homeland and are even attached to many of our ranking political and military officials. These foreign invaders have utilized the identity of our nation thru constitutional means and have enabled them to acquire an identity our defense system cannot identify as foreign invaders. Gradually, aliens are acquiring legal status and gaining control of our centers of power. Gradually, we as a national people are disintegrating and losing our bond with our nation with only the instinctive love for self and family, remaining. Time will come, in fact it is already ongoing when our nation is already acquiring an Alienized Individualized and Defilipinized Syndrome.
Towards the chinese invasion of our Spratlys, our reaction is strong. Is it because of its Hollywood appeal? But towards the ongoing real damages by the north americans and chinese possession and control of our resources and development here, in our very own main homeland, our reaction is negative. Is it because it is too subtle for its damages to be appreciated? Let us wake-up and be aware that we are living in a real world, not in a Hollywood World.
JMSU, Jug. Joint Marine Seismic Understaking. It was their ship and equipment that was used. Vietnam provided the scientists and we were supposed to interpret the data.
But I talked with a DOE official and he said the data they were given were blurred. They were so dependent on what the Chinese would provide them.
Why, in the first place did the government enter into such a lopsided agreement.
Arroyo and JDV should answer to the Filipino people.
– ellen
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Sasabihin na naman siguro ni Arroyo “O ako na naman? stop all this blame game, puro na lang ako?”
Eh si bansot naman talaga ang root ng karamihan sa “milagro” nitong nakaraang 10 taon! Nagyong nasilip na ng mga singkit kung anong meron ang Spratly’s di madali nilang pakakawalan ito.
Ang international body lang talaga ang makakalutas ng problemang ito.
Duplicitous China. Never trusted them.
China draws map boundaries like a two year old kid. It’s a wonder it did not include the Philippines as part of their territory. A wonder too why they didn’t include the Hawaiian Islands.
China draws map boundaries like a two year old kid. It’s a wonder it did not include the Philippines as part of their territory.
– Phil
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Hahahaha! Sinabi mo pa, sabay sabi “sharing is good!”
Sinusubukan lang tayong ibully nyan. Alam naman ng China na hindi basta basta niya makakamkam ang Spratlys. Just testing the waters. May mga Asean countries na aalma at ang mga international bodies na handang mag-protekta sa atin kahit papaano. Hindi katulad ng dati na kung may gusto ang manunupig, giyera na agad. Ngayon dadaanin sa mga sanctions atbp and a lot of diplomacy and back chanelling. Marami pa rin tayong mga kaibigang bansa. China will not destroy the economic gains she now has. She will listen to what the world says. Halos lahat ng bansa sa mundo except Hungary have products made in China. China will think twice to grab the Spratlys.
ano kaya kung sabihin ng us at pang bansa sa china, “sige, banatan mo pilipinas, hindi ka namin babayaran.” 🙂
Sinabi mo pa Jug. Kulangot lang ang profit margin ng China sa mga products niya. Biruin mo halos lahat ng 99 cents store dito sa US eh puro made in China. China has to have volume to matter. Hindi niya gagawin yung magagalit sa kanya ang mundo. Di nawalan siya ng business.
Kelan lang nagbukas ng pinto ang China sa mundo. In the late 70s, kung galing ka ng Teipei, hindi ka makakapasok sa Mainland. Masyado silang matitigas and loob. Kung baga, kulang pa sa dipomacy at international relations. Dati, ang mundo nila ay China lang. Ngayon, buong mundo na. They have to learn to get along. Hindi lahat ng bansa at tao sa mundo eh kaya nilang diktahan. Kahit marami ang utang ng US sa China, kung hindi bibilhin ng US ang mga products niya, patay din ang China. So malaki pa rin ang “say” ni Uncle Sam.
There seems to be a sustained effort to cultivate the perception that China is raring to rumble. There is this apparent dissident expert, Shen Hong Fang, ostensibly spilling the beans about hardliners in the military.
You really think a Chinese national is willing to go up against the military, without fear of disappearing? Or is she part of the cultivation effort?
Look beyond the obvious. There is the concept of the poisoned pawn in chess (ask Florry, or resident Judit Polgar). Why are they cultivating that image?
The power vacuum created by the dismantling of the Soviet Union gave China an opportunity to fill a void, what with its cheap copycat non-existent technology, overstuffed national treasury, bargain labor cost, and state-enforced industrial peace.
It is a second rate, trying-hard copycat, ika nga ni Cherie Gil. Taking over where USSR left off.
It is a KSP nation trying to bluff the US into a confrontational stance. Their targets are children – the future populations of the world – aided maybe by its narcotics-spiked noodles, lead-impregnated toys, and plastic-laced milk – and young adults, with gimongous volumes of cocaine, methampethamine, designer pills and whathaveyou.
They are deliberately bringing down standards of product quality by flooding the markets with defective, mediocre, brandless and pirated rejects on the cheap to strike at the heart of the basics of capitalism and destroy the premium quality mindset that was built over decades and billions of dollars of research and development.
The problem here is that US firms are feeding that lust for massive destruction by moving their factories to China to avail of the competitive labor cost. They now share trade secrets with the chinks who are decades behind in design, software, and manufacturing technology.
Whatever new gadgets are sold in the US, there are Chinese fakes available even before the US launch. The iPad2 came out just as Chinese copies were available in the blackmarket. Fake Blackberrys are sold in volumes for about $150 each. Fake iPods an iPhones are mere kids toys. You can even get a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar (about $1,500 US-made) for $150, China-made.
The US is now slowly realizing the folly of bringing its manufacturing ops there. It has created a huge displacement of its workers and it cannot sustain unemployment benefits for a long time.
As it fears being dislodged as the #1 economy in the world, the US also has lingering fears of facing a new military superpower it has helped with its industry.
All the eggs are now in one basket and I wonder if the angry birds will be there to protect them when the pigs arrive.
Honestly I really can’t make any final judgments on the Chinese as it seems we don’t know much about them to size up their attitudinal system which form the basis of how they would decide.
I have Chinese colleagues, we have facilities in China, but our products are not cheap, our business process follow European standards, even the plantations are managed well. If I’m going to judge China based on my relationship with my mainland chinese colleagues it would be on the favorable side. Unfortunately their government may think differently, I just don’t know.
Come to think of it, even if we get full control of the area concerned, we still need another party to help us extract the natural resource in there, it can be the US, or Vietnam, or China?
Maybe in order to get to the bottom of this we ask Gloria and JDV? Why isn’t there a senate inquiry on this, we certainly need to draft legislation covering issues like this?