China still the bully of Asia

By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

 

The attempt to cover up the first appearance of coronavirus in Wuhan China and the recent  enactment of sweeping powers to silence Hong Kong dissidents is a continuing show of China’s bully, tyrant and deceptive character as a nation and a scourge to all countries in the world.

Beijing’s opaque military buildup in the South China Sea (SCS), its reckless indifference to the Hague Tribunal ruling  and the recent disinformation at the start of the coronavirus outbreak are all traits of a bully and rogue nation joining the elite group of Iran and North Korea.

The Philippines is its most aggrieved victim because of China’s blatant and shameless disregard of the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in July 2016 that it is the Philippines who owns Scarborough shoals and other small islands within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which China has forcibly occupied and prevented Filipino fishermen from fishing in its own rich fishing ground.

According to the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS), ALL islands, shoals, ridges, sand bars and reefs located within the 200 mile EEZ belongs to the Philippines, the rationale of which is that each country in the world will have its own exclusive sovereign rights within 200 miles from its land mass.

Despite this international arbitral ruling favoring the lawsuit filed by the Philippines, China has constructed manmade islands, enlarged sand bars and reefs by destructive dredging of surrounding seas and then occupied and established military garrisons and airstrips under the guise of weather refuge for fishermen.

In 1947 with the use of a pencil (the pentel pen was not yet common at that time), China made

NINE DASHES in the map of SCS and claiming ownership of everything inside the 9-dash line for the flimsy and makeshift reason of “HISTORIC RIGHTS”. These lines have no coordinates, hence no specific location, just the whimsical stroke of the pencil that included 90 percent swatches of EEZ of Brunie, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The Hague Tribunal ruling said that China has “NO HISTORIC RIGHTS OR TITLE” over the area claimed and that the 9-dash line was superseded by the 1982 UNCLOS. It is of benefit to the aggrieved ASEAN nations that the US is now standing up to the bullying of China and accusing China of building a “maritime empire” in the SCS. It has now maintained its naval presence in the SCS by a regular flotilla of two aircraft carriers plus dozens of escort battleships.

This naval action is of course vehemently protested by China. Gusto sang China siya lang ang hari sa South China Sea. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the first time called China’s claim in the SCS as unlawful and accused Beijing of a campaign of bullying.

Recently China’s government asserted broad new powers over Hong Kong to rein in those who criticize its rule – from pro-democracy protestors, to news agencies, to overseas dissidents in a new National Security Law that risks endangering Hong Kong’s appeal as an international financial hub. The legislation passed by lawmakers in China and signed by Pres. Xi Jinping allows for potential life sentences for crimes including subversion of state power and collusion with foreign forces thus undermining the city autonomy.

As a background, British rule of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 based on the promise of China to preserve Hong Kong high degree of autonomy under an arrangement known as “ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS”. Hong Kong’s freedom has become increasingly tenuous since Pres. Xi Jinping because this dictator president now feels he can bully his way to withstand foreign pressure and local protestors in his move to fully integrate Hong Kong into the communist way of governance, junking the democratic system of the British.

The financial community in Hong Kong, the most influential in Asia, is fully aware that its business liberty and ease of operation is slowly being strangled and curtailed by Beijing. They have their eyes now looking afar to the ASEAN nations (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore) and even Australia to relocate its financial empire. As early as this time, our government should already prepare enticements and incentives for these financial companies once they fled Hong Kong.

In this coronavirus pandemic, a Hong Kong scientist, Dr. Li-Meng Yan who fled to the US for the safety of her life told Fox News that the Chinese government knew about the coronavirus well before they claimed they did.

From the very start of the pandemic, China concealed it believing that they can keep it under control.  This China’s action to conceal information resulted in a loss of 4 to 6 weeks delay in the fight against COVID-19. This was confirmed by the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee report that “China never notified WHO about the outbreak in Wuhan, China in violation of WHO regulations.”

WHO only learned about the coronavirus outbreak following reports from Chinese media that there was an abnormal pneumonia pandemic and the information made its way online. If it was not for the pressure from Pres. Trump, WHO would have continued its cover-up of the 6 weeks Chinese silence. So we see now how despicable and deceitful China is, that no nations on earth should trust them anymore.

It appears now daw medyo natauhan na si Pres. Duterte sa China! Lately, DU30 is not praising anymore his newfound friend Pres Xi just like when he took office in 2016. This was followed by his move to suspend his decision to scrap a two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.

And yet in his latest SONA, he told the Filipino people frankly that he is afraid to confront China to vacate its occupied islands belonging to the Philippines. While this is understandable because we do not have the military capability, still there are other legal avenues that DU30 has not exhausted, like appealing to the UN and marshaling fellow ASEAN nations to aggressively confront China.

We thought we can trust China with all the Trojan horse gifts it offered to DU30 upon his assumption of office. But it turned out our country was always at a disadvantage. Again we quote Goethe: “We are never deceived, we deceived ourselves”.