EDITORIAL - Losing friends
Opening up to the world and playing by international trade rules, in a region without any major armed conflict for over three decades, brought China to where it is now: the world’s second largest economy. Poverty is still a problem in a nation of over 1.35 billion people, but a large segment of its population is enjoying prosperity.
Chinese officials have acknowledged the importance of peace in national development, and of being a responsible member of the community of nations. China hosted a spectacular Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, followed by an equally impressive World Expo in Shanghai in 2010.
The afterglow from those successful events and the international goodwill built up over the years are now threatened by China’s aggressive assertion of its maritime territorial claims. Not content with laying claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, photos show its ongoing massive reclamation activities on several reefs and shoals in disputed waters. The construction of new islets is destroying fragile coral networks that serve as breeding grounds for marine life.
In the past, Beijing claimed that huts built on Mischief or Panganiban Reef in the West Philippine Sea were meant merely as shelters for its fishermen. A multistory concrete building now sits on the reef. These days Beijing no longer bothers to claim that structures it is building all over the South China Sea are meant for fishing. Instead it says it has a right to build within its territory.
The aggressive actions prompted the Philippines to ask the United Nations to define the country’s maritime entitlements under international rules, notably the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that counts China among the signatories.
Chinese activities in disputed waters have frayed long-standing friendships with other nations, although Beijing does not seem to care. The activities have also compelled several of its neighbors to ramp up their own defense capabilities, and to move closer to countries led by the United States that can provide a counterbalance to Chinese expansionist goals.
The other day, President Aquino warned that the world should fear China’s actions. History is replete with bitter lessons learned by nations that believed might makes right. In building what has been dubbed as a Great Wall of Sand, China is shutting out the world.
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