“China should not lead by brute force and only rely on the power of its military might but accepted principles of international law“
IF WE scan the current geopolitical situation around the world, war clouds are getting darker everywhere instead of clearing up.
In our own region, the rhetoric is not softening.
It is the same in the Middle East as well as the war in Ukraine.
The so-called ceasefire being brokered by the United States has not happened and bombs continue to rain in many Ukrainian cities.
As one former CIA Director said in an interview, we are currently living in a very dangerous world.
Add the economic uncertainty being generated by the Tariffs being levied by the United States on many countries, both allies and adversaries, and we have the making of an approaching perfect storm.
For ordinary mortals like you and me who can only observe what is happening, we can only pray that wiser and cooler heads will prevail to avoid falling into a deep abyss that we all cannot climb out from.
In our own neck of the woods, we have our own WPS issue in addition to perhaps the much bigger problem of Taiwan.
The discourse when it comes to our tussle with our giant neighbor China on the WPS issue needs to go down and go down fast.
Yes, we need to defend and fight for our sovereign rights in the area but we have to do it in a manner that is not influenced by outside factors like those advocating a more belligerent or confrontational approach.
We have to evaluate the situation and fight for our rights as peacefully and diplomatically to the best of our abilities minus the wild bombast that are sometimes used because such language can only exacerbate the tension rather than cool it down.
There are those who will of course tell us to look at what China is doing to us.
Their Coast Guard and militia ships water bomb our supply ships and even intentionally ram our ships causing damage.
China can do all that because of their superior military capability which we can never match.
But at some point, China will have to abide with accepted international norms of conduct if it wants respect from the international community commensurate to its status as a world power especially the small nations in its neighborhood that it badly wants to join its orbit.
It should not lead by brute force and only rely on the power of its military might but accepted principles of international law.
This is the reason why no matter what it takes, we have to continue to occupy the moral high ground in our dealings with China.
Regardless of China’s legal interpretation of its position vis a vis the WPS, it knows that their so-called nine dash line has no basis in international law.
Their insistence on historical rights defies the imagination because how were their ancient mariners able to map the Scarborough Shoal and claim it for China considering that the place is underwater?
China’s continued refusal to honor the 2016 Arbitral Ruling is also indefensible on the basis of UNCLOS which it signed and will simply diminish its lofty standing in the international community of nations.
It cannot simply cherry pick which law to follow or not follow. Besides, if China believes in its position, it should have participated in the case.
For us, the way we respond to what China is doing is important.
For instance, there are too many officials issuing statements on the WPS.
It should only be the OP or the Department of Foreign Affairs that should be doing this.
Camp Aguinaldo or the Coast Guard at any level should not be issuing statements to avoid misinterpretations and complications.
Lower level PCG officials should not be allowed to be giving media interviews on foreign policy issues.
Officials from the DFA on the other hand are better trained and more experienced in dealing with complex foreign policy issues and could provide answers coaxed in diplomatic language that will not be interpreted as belligerent or combative.
The DFA Secretary said it right in saying that we should continue to keep communications with China open when she faced the media which will hopefully be the start of more diplomatic interactions between us and China.
