China: Anatomy of a Bully

A bully is someone who threatens, pushes and mistreats another just because he could.  He doesn't understand nor listen to reason but demands that the victim listen and subscribe to his line of thinking; even if it does not make sense, or is even worth listening to in the first place.  To him, whatever he says is reasonable and whatever he does is justifiable.  He is a bully after all.

China is a bully of the first degree.  That’s why its government belongs to the lowest kind, along with those of Cambodia which stifle freedom, and North Korea which has converted an entire population into one big cult following, devoid of the right to even dream simple dreams.

China claims it owns Scarborough Shoals, the Spratlys and Kalayaan Islands because they are located in a sea called South China.  Oh wait, they also have historical basis for such claims.  For centuries, they have moored their ships in those islands that barely protruded from the sea, in between ravaging the marine resources that abound the surrounding areas.  They have become so familiar with these fishing grounds that they have given the islands names that sound Chinese.  And they even have ancient cartographic documents to prove that they have exploited these islands.

So what if the Philippines is literally a stone’s throw away from the disputed islands?  So what if modern laws of the seas clearly indicate that the islands fall inside the natural territorial line of the Philippines?  So what if you raise a howl in the international community?

So what?

The Philippines must make counter claims.  We should claim that we own China.  Well, our ancestors have traded with them.  That means our products, if not our men, have reached their shores.  We have also labeled them singkit.  That gives us the right to claim them as our subordinates.

Symbols of the Filipino lifestyle SM and Jollibee have risen in Chinese soil.  It gives us the right to claim that we have Filipinized China.  The dog breed Shih Tzu, which originally came from China, is the Filipino's favorite pet.  If these dogs are subservient in our laps then their original owners should also lick our hands when we bade them to.

I know these are all absurd suggestions.  But they only reflect the skewed line of reasoning of the Chinese government.

Even the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines demanded, in our own shore, that the Philippines stop claiming sovereignty over the islands.  How can such insult happen in our very own backyard?

The answer: China is a bully.

They have 1.3 billion people compared to our 100 million.  They also have superior military might which, in the game of bluff, almost always guarantees that they wouldn't be the first to blink.  This is not new to them.  They have bullied Tibet and its peace-loving Dalai Lama; perhaps they want sole claim to the world’s highest mountain – the Everest.  And they still continue to call Taiwan, a breakaway republic, its own; threatening other countries who would as much try to build a diplomatic relationship with the small island nation with either economic sanction, verbal assault or the collective stare of more than a billion people – whichever bullies best.  If nothing works, then there is always China’s military might to deal with.

Bully.

So we stand up against a giant knowing fully well that, at any moment, it may use its enormous feet to stomp us to the ground.  Just make sure my Filipino friends that when they do, you carry a small needle to prick those rotten soles as they try to step on us. 

Even bullies bleed.

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