well, at least the Crimea was historically part of Russia.
But the Philippines was never part of China, and the West Philippine sea was never part of China, unless you mean that Chinese pirates who harassed, destroyed and captured slaves were part of China.
Obama also essentially let China take over the shoals in the West Philippine sea, because when they started their slow takeover, President Aquino was told by the USA not to try to stop them while they did their slow take over, but to take them to court.
(Slow takeover: first, put up barriers against our fishermen, then move in and harass them, then move in and dig up the sea bottom to build artificial islands, then militarize the islands).
So the courts decided in our favor: it is the anniversary of our winning of the court case, which occurred shortly after Duterte took over. Big deal. So what next? Should the tiny Philippines try to attack them to get them out? They now have airbases and weapons on those artificial islands.
Actually, VietNam has gone to war with China in the past over similar aggression: Viet Nam lost, but the message was sent.
But of course, VietNam was actually part of China once, and they remember that. This is the backstory of their ethnic cleansing of their Chinese ethnic population after the communists took over.
So on the two year anniversary, these banners were put up all over Manila: ABS-CBN:
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| Photo Credit: Ronald Gustilo 22 hours ago |
heh.
But of course, the Philippines was never part of China, and the last time they Chinese tried to take over Luzon, it was by Chinese pirates, not their gov't. Like the Japanese, they figured the Filipinos would prefer another "Asian" overlord, but they were wrong: The locals helped the Spanish throw them out. (They threw out the British too, but that's another story).
however, throwing out a bunch of pirates is not the same as throwing out a nation with nuclear weapons and a couple million soldiers and lots of technology stolen from the west.
and the banners were not put up by China, but by the opposition, to troll Duterte who is trying to make nice with China, given the fact that it would take a war to get rid of them now.
One does doubt that Duterte will copy Indonesia's pogrom of their Chinese community, who was seen as a fifth column for communist takeover back in the 1960's, but the animosity is there, and with China using the Chinese diaspora community as part of their aggression against neighboring countries, things could get bad quickly.
The idea that "Peace for our time" will be achieved by giving the aggressor a little bit of land, and he will remain quiet didn't work for Chamberlain, and now Obama's policy of non aggression against a Chinese grab of islets belonging to the Philippines is showing the same thing.
And by the way: The Chinese moves are destroying the ecosystem in the areas, meaning it is destroying the Philippine fisherman's livelihood (while Chinse fishermen try to fish all over, overfishing the areas owned by other countries).
Inquirer story about that here(July 2018):
Filipino fishermen have accused their Chinese counterparts of destroying the coral reefs and harvesting giant clams at the shoal.
residential spokesperson Harry Roque has said the Philippines will not protest the destruction of the reefs and instead bring it up in the next bilateral discussion with China.
But Batongbacal said the Duterte administration should have a “more urgent effort” to change its policy “from a passive observer to being an active protector.” “We really need to protect the fishery habitat and fish stocks in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.so who cares if China destroys the ecosystem?
Not the environmentalists, of course.
But one does wonder why Korea and Japan didn't notice that a militarized base on an artificial island in the West Philippine sea might enable China to block their shipping lanes.
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