How China is peeling the Philippines like a very blind cabbage Posted by The Society of Honor on February 13, 2019 · 104 Comments

By JoeAm

I am impressed with China’s strategic approach to gaining global power. I don’t like it. But I am impressed.

China uses small steps unrestrained by laws or matters of fair play, kindness, or respect. She does not need an army. She has agents on the ground. Filipinos, in the Philippines.

When push-back occurs, she criticizes the people pushing back, side steps, and continues forward. It is relentless, it is successful, it is the cabbage strategy.

It’s awesome to behold.

It is so successful that the Philippines is like an unaware frog in boiling water, only it is a cabbage.

And China is peeling the Philippines one leaf at a time like a very blind cabbage.

The first thing China did was find willing agents in the Philippines. It was like establishing a beach-head, the place from which invasion could be launched. How did she recruit these agents? Promises? Money? Power? We don’t know.

But we can see one thing clearly. These agents are not acting in the interest of Filipinos. They are gifting seas and fish to China, jobs to China, economic opportunities to China (high interest debt, construction employing Chinese workers, casinos, Boracay, Marawi, reclamation space in Manila Bay), letting mainland workers in by the millions on shady work permits, welcoming Chinese military ships and planes in Davao, gifting prize developments . . . including a Chinese telco . . . to Dennis Uy, and seating Bong Go in the Senate.

Speculative you argue? Hmmmm. Clearly the Philippines’ acceptance of China in Philippine seas is fact. And we can witness former DFA Secretary Cayetano blaming the Aquino Administration for making China mad about Scarborough. It’s as if China were the patriot and Aquino the villain. (See “Philippines, not Aquino, lost Scarborough“)

And 3 million new mainland Chinese immigrants? That is fact. And Dennis Uy’s amazingly fast rise to oligarchic riches, or Bong Go’s insertion into the Senate on unethical terms (using public resources and premature campaigning). Fact. A Chinese consulate office in Davao? Fact. Chinese military ships and planes visiting Davao? Fact.

These all advance China’s interests in the Philippines. They do not protect Filipino fishermen, laborers, public servants (like Aquino), people who like to eat fish directly from Philippine seas rather than imported from China at a mark-up, or future leaders who must deal with the damages being done.

The Chinese military rudely shout orders to Filipino pilots flying over Philippine seas to “get out”, and its Coast Guard ships chase Filipino fishing boats out of Philippine waters.

These are all cabbage leaves being peeled away, one by one, as Philippine sovereignty is reduced to a piece of tattered paper called a Constitution that her own political leaders disregard in favor of . . . well, their own well being.

It is really quite a sorry sight, this Philippines, with no spine, no brain, no honor. Perhaps it is best that most Filipinos remain unaware of all of this, for the shame of it all.

“A jellyfish named Philippines.”

I’m sure the movie will be out soon.

As well as I can figure, here are China’s primary agents in the Philippines:

President Duterte, who is driving the friendship policy

Former DFA Secretary Cayetano, who failed to protest China with authority but did protest Aquino . . . rudely

Aspiring Senator Bong Go, who appears to be the architect of the pro-Chinese push

Oligarch Dennis Uy, who seems to be channeling Chinese commercial interests into the Philippines

Senator Francis Escudero, who effectively awarded China Telecom a role in building out, and profiting from, the next telco

There are others. The ‘Build Build Build’ architects who accept China’s above-market interest rates to fund projects, sticking poor Filipinos with the future burden. The senators voting Mislatel (and China Telecom) a prized role among Philippine telcos. The government agency officials accepting P5,000 per case to issue work permits to Chinese immigrants. The Filipinos smuggling sand out to help build Chinese islands.

But it is interesting. I don’t sense as much broad support for the pro-China policy as there has been for the President’s deadly drug war. Indeed, a lot of voices are speaking out, such as Senator Villanueva protesting the way illegal workers are being allowed into the Philippines. There was rage last weekend when a Chinese national threw her dessert on a Filipino policeman . . . and was released a short time later.

Impunity is getting bigger.

Objection is getting angrier.

Perhaps . . . just maybe . . . this China policy is becoming so offensive that even ordinarily dense and self-dealing politicians can comprehend. Maybe they can imagine Chinese overlords in the Philippines taking THEIR jobs or making their sweet lives difficult. It is also possible that a “law of proximity” in play here. Patriotism runs deeper in the Philippines the further away from the Duterte government one gets.

But any way you look at it, the Philippines is being peeled by China, one sovereign leaf at a time.

I’m not even sure if the Philippines is a real nation anymore.

I can’t readily identify the spine, that’s for sure.