“China has zero legal credibility with regard to the WPS issue except the force of the barrel of its gun”
WITH the latest ramming of one of our supply ships, China continues to show it is able to do whatever it pleases in the West Philippine Sea regardless of anything we do.
The additional EDCA sites and joint patrols do not seem to be having any effect.
This is because of the permanent presence of Chinese military assets in the WPS.
Just look at the response of China in our last joint patrol with the US Air Force and Navy.
In a classic case of gaslighting, China accused us of enlisting the aid of a foreign country to create trouble in the West Philippine Sea.
China keeps on insisting its territorial claims in the SCS is supported by law and history.
By what law and historical fact, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson did not say.
Without any international legal basis to stand on, China wants the world to believe it is only responding to these “troublemakers.”
What a lie.
What is China doing 1,000 kms away from its nearest territory?
Fortunately, China has zero legal credibility with regard to the WPS issue except the force of the barrel of its gun.
What China really wants is for the small and powerless countries in the region to simply keep quiet and acquiesce to what it is doing.
Instead of acting responsibly befitting its position as an ascendant power by showing that its system is far better than the one it wants to replace, it is using brute force to get what it wants.
With China’s continued aggressive actions and the Armed Forces admitting there is not much it can do about the swarms of militia ships, it may be time to rethink our position.
In our own way, we are feverishly enhancing our external defense capabilities but no matter what we will achieve, we will never match the mighty Chinese Navy, Air Force, Army and Coast Guard.
We must, however, continue enhancing our defense capability to give us a semblance of a fighting chance to defend our country no matter how bad the odds are if it becomes necessary.
One option available for us if China continues to behave and act the way it is doing is perhaps to tinker with our existing defense agreements with the United States to see if we can add more teeth to the alliance.
Doing so, however, may cost the country dearly like for instance the US asking their military assets here can be used to defend Taiwan if attacked by China which some quarters may be unwilling to pay.
If we look at Japan and South Korea which are also treaty allies of the United States, the two countries unlike us have permanent basing agreements with the US.
We, however, only allow rotational basing rights with no permanent stationing of military personnel. There are tens of thousands of US military personnel in both countries that could respond immediately in case of any emergency which cannot be done in our case.
If we conduct joint patrols, US naval ships will have to come from Japan, Guam or Hawaii since there are no US Naval ships permanently stationed here.
As the most recent ramming have shown, there were no US naval ships or air assets based in the country that could have provided some covering assistance and the Chinese know this.
Permanent basing, however, is not only allowed by the Constitution but is also a very controversial topic.
But unless we can match China’s naval strength ship by ship, or China suddenly starts abiding by international law which is highly unlikely, our leaders should start thinking of new ideas.
Allowing permanent US bases to operate like it used to be is no longer a prevailing practice.
The South Korean Armed Forces actually have something like a combined command set-up or integration with the US forces in that country.
Perhaps we can study that arrangement to see if it can work for us.
Clearly, the current status quo as the WPS Task Force said needs to change.
And since the government is doing a lot of studies, maybe the permanent basing issue can be included.
