China is feeling the backlash of its aggressive action in the South China Sea. Because of its preoccupation to extend its maritime power in the region, China has paid less attention to the people’s quality of life.The leadership cannot be totally blamed by the people who are driven by materialism and the acquisition of wealth. According to reports from Bloomberg, South China Morning Post and the Nikkei Asian Review, hundreds of rich and middle-class Chinese are fleeing the communist country to get better education for their children and to escape the air pollution. Residents wearing gauze mask as protection from the stifling air pollution has become a familiar sight in Beijing and other industrial hubs. Some are fleeing President Xi Jinping’s purge to go after Chinese officials who have stashed their ill-gotten wealth overseas. These corrupt officials are reportedly snapping up real estate property in Los Angeles and other cities in the US West Coast.
The other side of this story is that Xi is purging the party leadership ranks of rivals to his grip on power.
Several years ago after the historic British turnover of Hong Kong to China, there was a flight of Chinese capital and families from what was then known as the Crown Colony. I was in Hong Kong during the landmark turnover on July 1,1997 that was celebrated by the Chinese with an awesome display of fireworks in Victoria Harbor. How I found myself standing three persons away from HK billionaire businessman Li Ka Shing at the water’s edge of Convention Center is a long story. The fireworks launched from barges in the bay provided a magnificent sight.
But not all the Hong Kong Chinese who were watching the fireworks were celebrating. Many had tears in their eyes for the end of an era of British colonial rule and the fear of the new rulers from mainland China. In fact, many of them had applied three years earlier for migration to Canada with Vancouver and Toronto as preferred destinations. There were Chinese enclaves there that made settling in seamless and culturally easier.
The United States now is the preferred destination of Chinese looking for countries to emigrate to. For an investment of $600,000 a foreigner can apply for an investor visa and acquire permanent residence in two years. For applications as a foreign investor, the US requires the applicant to put his money in a business that is not attracting as much interest. Aside from perking up business, the idea behind this open field is also to create jobs for Americans. It works both ways—it’s a haven for foreign investors seeking a better life for their families, and work for unemployed Americans. This was what happened when the US allowed Japanese companies like Toyota, Nissan and Honda to open and operate car manufacturing plants in some states .
While Japan gave cars made by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler a run for their money, the competition resulted in better-built US cars, not to mention the jobs generated by humming factories. Detroit may still be known as the US car capital but Kentucky, Alabama and Indiana are turning out Japanese cars Americans have come to like for being fuel efficient and technologically advanced. In Kentucky alone, 7,000 Americans are making Toyota cars, pushing Japanese vehicle production in the US to hit a record high 3.6 million last year .
China’s woes are beginning to pile up after the International Arbitration Court in The Hague ruled that Beijing has no legal basis for its sweeping nine-dash-line claim of nearly the entire South China Sea. The case against China was filed by Manila which protested Chinese encroachment in the West Philippine Sea. Manila’s legal victory has kept Chinese diplomats busy working around the globe explaining their case and dissuading other countries not to bring up the South China Sea issue in international conferences.. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Indian Prime Minister Narandi Modi asking him not to raise the South China Sea issue at the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou. The issue will surely surface also at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Dialogue Partners Summit this month in Laos. US President Barack Obama and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are attending this event.
The touchy (for China) issue of the SCS could also come up in the Group of 7 meeting. The G7 is composed of the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. These countries are major trading partners of China. Why would these countries have a major stake in the South China Sea? Although not claimants in the territorial dispute, they are concerned about the freedom of navigation for international vessels carrying trillions of dollars worth of commercial cargo passing through the South China Sea. Control of these vital sea lanes by the Chinese military buildup on the various shoals, rocks and reefs has kept every country affected by the prospect of having to kowtow to Beijing on edge.
Officially, China has made known to the world it does not recognize The Hague court’s jurisdiction and ruling over the maritime border dispute. But China is feeling world opinion against it, considering the the PROC is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration is a UN agency.