Thursday 7 March 2019

China, Philippines, and Last But Not Least, USA

There are two main issues regarding Philippines that are surfacing at the moment; the first is the territorial conflict between the two nations mainly involving the Huangyen islands in the South China sea, while the second is the anti-governmental armed protests in Philippines by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). One notable point in the two occurrences is that the Chinese believe that the United States of America is deeply involved in both issues - and in a very negative way.

It is obvious nowadays that USA has chosen to side with Philippines in the Huangyen issue. Recently, the senate itself had proposed a resolution that "strongly urges all regional nations to exercise self-restraint and to refrain from permanently inhabiting points in the West Philippine Sea until a code of conduct is reached". USA had also allied with Japan in the Daoyu island conflict between China and Japan. Although both parties in the senate had voiced that it is an effort to restore peace and cooperation among the South-Eastern Asian nations, its profound engagement in Asian territorial issues against China has made the 1.3 billion scowl.

The anti-governmental protests in Philippines, as a result, have instigated in the Chinese public negative sentiments for both Philippines and USA. Although the Philippines media (ex: Philistar) has emitted reports that the government is trying to reconcile with the armed forces through all methods possible, the Chinese reporters seems to take pleasure by mocking the Philippines government by making the situation sound as chaotic as possible. In one article, the reporter laments the number of "unfortunate brave citizens who have died for freedom". Approximately 2,000 comments have been made in this article including those who gleefully shouted that this was the chance for China; China should supply the protesters with weapons to bring down the "rude" government which actually dared to challenge the absolute power.
But there is a bigger problem at hand; a potential clash between the world's two superpowers is arising. Anti-USA sentiments are more than conspicuous in the comments for such articles. Many Chinese web-surfers either make sarcastic comments about whether USA is behind the anti-governmental protests in order to gain control of the Philippines government itself. Some jeer the Philippines government will be asking USA to keep its own citizens under control. It seems that USA's support for Philippines in the Huanyendao conflict is casting a dark shadow in gradually every issue in conflict, deteriorating the chance of cordiality between the two.


No comments:

Post a Comment