Tuesday, March 14, 2017

China aggression against the Philippines

For years, China has slowly been trying to steal land from various countries and in international waters in the west Philippine sea: VietNam fought back in two small wars, Indonesia sent their navy to shoot on illegal " fishing boats", ah but President Obama sat back and watched them do it, while pressuring PNoy not to do anything to upset them, but take it to court.

So the Philippines went to court, and guess what? The Philippines won... and nothing happened.

The US Navy, after the court case, actually sailed through these international waters a few times and got China in a tizzy, but nothing happened.

so now they are doing another "slow step" aggression: first they "survey", then they chase out the Philippine fishermen (often for being aggressive against their fishermen), then they send in their navy to protect their fishermen, then the rope the place off, then they start dredging up the bottom to build artificial islands.

And you know, there is silence from all those green types about this destruction of the ecology of the region. Because the green types only are anti American, not pro environment. Just like the "Human rights" types who get Gloria out of jail (ignoring that she was corrupt and stole a lot of money) ignore that major political killings are never prosecuted, that court cases that actually convict politicians diverting funding or taking bribes never get full prosecution, or are thrown out of court on review...

but ah, they then object to the "Extra judicial killings" (but ignore the alternative is becoming a drug cartel state like Mexico, where three times as many people a year are killed with little objection from the human rights community. Ah, but they are by the criminals, you say? Uh, corruption is why they can get away with it).

AlJ report on China's latest aggression:

President Rodrigo Duterte instructed the military to assert Philippine ownership of a large ocean region off the country's northeastern coast where China's survey ships were spotted last year. 
 However, Duterte said on Monday he ordered the military to claim the Benham Rise area in a friendly way, repeating his country has no option but to be diplomatic because it "cannot match the might of China".
"My order to my military, you go there and tell them straight that this is ours, but I say it in friendship," Duterte said in a news conference when asked about the issue in the Pacific Ocean.
The Philippine military spotted the Chinese survey ships suspiciously crisscrossing the Benham Rise waters from July to December last year, defence chief Delfin Lorenzana said last week. 
Lorenzana said the government is considering an increase in patrols and the building of territorial markers in the offshore region, which is believed to be rich in mineral resources and a vast coral reef ecosystem. ...
In 2012, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf declared Benham Rise to be part of the Philippine continental shelf, where the country has exclusive rights to fish and exploit resources, including undersea deposits of oil and gas.

so much for international law.

So what will Trump do? The Chinese knew Obama would do diddly squat, but I suspect they will use the American left to try to oppose Trump by calling this "aggression". And China's social media army will tweet away to make it seem like it is an unpopular move.

AlJ says Duterte will not help the US guard the important sea lanes, which of course are outside our borders or economic zone.

And the backstory is that China has recently sent aid to help treat druggies (never mind that most of the drugs are via China), and signed a big agriculture bill to import stuff from us. If we make them angry, they will refuse the food and send it back (spoiled of course). This is what they did when an angry cop massacred a dozen Chinese tourists a couple years ago: Sent back bananas from Mindanao, to punish the Philippines.

Another backstory is that China's press is discussing the idea that they once owned the Philippines, so would like to take the whole country over in the future.

Well, they did own Viet Nam once, but they have never owned the Philippines. Indeed, their last "invasion" was by pirates in 1574, who were thrown out by the Spanish with a lot of local help. Earlier contact was only trade.

but the Philippines is the weakest link, so I guess we are in the cross hairs.

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