War with China

When the Philippines adopted its Constitution in 1935, it declared that it “renounces war as an instrument of national policy.”

We went to war in 1941-1942, not of our own but a war imposed upon us. We fought but Japan was stronger and had been prepared for years to waging war. Japan had never renounced war as its instrument to force its objectives until it lost World War II and General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Japan renounce war in settling its international disputes.

War is a messy business. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister who led the British Empire against Germany in World War II said that “to jaw-jaw is better than to war- war”. This is an ironic statement because earlier Churchill's predecessor Neville Chamberlain was engaged in “jaw-jaw” with Germany only to end up in “war-war” with the Nazi. Chamberlain tried to pacify Germany to avoid a war by seceding territories that Germany claimed of German historic origin.

Ironically, we have this same situation in relation to the Scarborough Shoal that China claims to own by historic right because it claims Chinese fishermen had been going there for centuries. China even cited our own Constitution that defined our territory to say that this small island is theirs and not ours because we did not mention this in our Constitution.

Is this island also mentioned in the Chinese constitution defining its territory? So far we have only China's word but it has not published the alleged historical record. Indeed, if its claim is legal by historic right, why is China unwilling to come to the international tribunal to present its case and resolve this issue by peaceful means?

Well, who will argue with China? President Aquino has already admitted we cannot fight China. We are too small that someone described us as an ant that can be stepped on by a giant.

Surely the Philippines cannot fight a war with China. It is too big with over a billion people to our 93 million. Although our Defense Secretary declared that our army is ready to fight, that is more bravado than reality. The AFP cannot even defeat the rag tag New People's Army I wonder how it can fight a country with a standing army of over one million.

Only a “jaw-jaw” can resolve this issue and our only chance is the International Court for the resolution of territorial dispute. China claims the Scarborough; we claim it is ours because it is within our territorial waters as defined by the Law of the Sea.

But then who can argue with China? Might is right and pygmies cannot enforce their rights when the giant occupies their cave or snatches their food.

China claims it has documents dating to whatever imperial reign it is although so far China has not shown the world a piece of paper that can stand scrutiny.

Anyway, paper or none the only recourse we have is to file a case with the international tribunal and let China present its case. I doubt, however that China will join because it has the habit of merely ignoring international bodies that do not serve its objectives. It is too big it can afford to ignore.

But even if China ignores, we must still file it so lest we reneging to enforce our claim.

The case of Tibet is an example. Despite international pressure, China refuses to leave Tibet that it occupied by force. This is a small country with nary an army or police because it is ruled by monks who have foresworn violence.

Waging war with China is as stupid as we can get and this reality should tell us that we have no means of enforcing our rights. We must remember that China has veto power in the United Nations so that no matter what resolution the UN will pass against China, all that China has to do is vote against it and the resolution is defeated.

Communist China's military still clings to the principle of war enunciated by Mao Chedong. Mao said, “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats we pursue.”

Our leaders must also be similarly guided. Note that when our navy, a bath tub compared to the Chinese navy, went to Scarborough, the Chinese backed off but when the Philippine Navy withdrew ostensibly (as explained by Aquino) to ease tensions, the Chinese moved in. We retreated and the Chinese pursued. They know we have no means of repelling them and are now on the offensive, even telling us now to get out of the shoal.

This column diverts from my usual local concern. The reason for this is that there are already voices exploiting anti-Chinese sentiments and this can go wild.*

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