HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF? THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT CHINA, PHILIPPINES, AND THE WESTERN POWERS!

By Abdel Karim Cristobal Tillah, August 14, 2016

For the past months, tensions between China, the Philippines and the US have been rising to dangerous levels. If we follow Western mainstream and Philippine mass media reporting, it can be said that in a nutshell, the
Philippines under Pres. Benigno Aquino III allegedly complained of China’s encroachment of the South China Sea and filed a complaint before the Hague Tribunal despite China’s appeal to the Philippines for bilateral talks.
The Philippines snubbed China’s appeal and eventually won the case that was filed in the Hague. Now, China which boycotted the case, does not respect the Tribunal’s decision and the US and its allies are rushing into the
South China Sea to support the Philippines in its possible military confrontation with China. Because of these, there have been bashing on both sides as China is being portrayed as very evil by Mainstream Western media while some Chinese demonstrators are rallying against US and other Western establishments and possibly harassing Filipinos in China and the disputed areas.

The description of the conflict I’ve just stated above seems simple enough to understand but unfortunately, there are very important facts that are being swept under the rug by Mainstream Western and Philippine mass media. First, what we are seeing here is just one of the many symptoms of an age-old disease that has been trying to destroy the world. So in order to cure a disease or solve a problem, we must first find the root cause of the problem. To put the developing situation in a proper perspective, it is necessary to study history and look at the track record of the players involved.

Possibly for nearly a thousand years, since the ancient times up to the recent past, the people and governments in the Philippine region and China, generally had a good relationship. They were peacefully trading with one another for a very long time. As you can see, Filipinos and Chinese are both Asians and a lot of Filipinos have Chinese blood in their veins. On the other hand, thousands of Chinese living today in China are descendants of the Muslim Eastern Sulu King Paduka Pahala who visited China in 1417 and became very good friends with the Chinese Emperor. Sadly, he died shortly thereafter and the Emperor built a great tomb for him which was never done for any other foreign ruler. This tomb is now a national heritage site in Shandong, China. With Sulu now being part of the Philippines, this site should serve as reminder of the long enduring friendship between China and the Philippines.

As for Southeast Asia, it can be said that in the latter part of the Middle or Dark Ages, things got really nasty when the Western Powers came to colonize and enslave the region!

In the 1500’s, before the Philippines was established, the Philippine region was mainly composed of the many kingdoms of Luzon, many kingdoms of Visayas, the country of the Sultanate of Sulu and the country of the Sultanate of Mindanao. There was peace between the people of Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and Sulu as they were all Malay brothers living in harmony within a larger Asian brotherhood. The small kingdoms and the two sovereign countries were not poor as they were already trading with the Chinese, Arabs, Indians and many others. But when Spain arrived in the region in the 1500’s, they conquered the kingdoms of Luzon and Visayas and named their conquered territory “Las islas de las Filipinas” or Philippines in english. The predominantly ethnic Malay inhabitants of Luzon and Visayas who were then called “Indios” by the Spanish were enslaved and forced to become Christians. Hence, this was the start of the Philippines becoming a 3rd world state.

Spain then declared war on the two sovereign and rich Muslim countries, namely the Sultanate of Sulu and the Sultanate of Mindanao. Spain used the term “Moros” to refer to the Muslim ethnic Malays of Sulu and Mindanao. Spain together with their Christianized Indio slaves, fought against the Muslim Moros for more than 300 years. Sadly, this started the almost 500 year animosity between Malay blood brothers, between Christian Indios and Muslim Moros.

As if this war with Spain wasn’t enough, in the late 1800’s, it turned out that Spain wasn’t the only enemy of the mighty Sulu Sultanate as the UK, Netherlands and Germany connived with Spain in grabbing and dividing
some of the territories of the Sulu Sultanate among themselves and in bringing down the economy of the Sulu Sultanate. Quoting from the book, “The Rise and Fall of the Sulu Islamic Empire” written by Hedjazi and
Ututalum:
“Former territories of the Sulu empire were divided among Spain, Britain and the Dutch. The Dutch took Sulu sultanate territory lying south of Sabah (the Tirun territories), now part of Indonesia. Spain, which never had
sovereignty over the Sulu archipelago, by the Treaty of Paris, sold the Philippines, including Sulu, to the United States. Spain earlier took the Muslim principalities of Palawan, Mindoro, Panay and Iloco from the Sulu empire. The Sulu sultanate territories in North Borneo (Sabah) that were leased by the British with the British not having sovereignty over it, gave the territories to the Federation of Malaysia.” In spite of all these, the Sulu Sultanate remained unconquered.

Then in 1898, the US came and took away the Philippines and other Spanish colonies like Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc. away from Spain. The US then fought a short war against the Indios led by Gen. Aguinaldo and conquered them within two years. The Americans improved the living conditions of the Indios who were later called Filipinos. The US also violently invaded the war-ravaged Muslim countries of Sulu and Mindanao. After more than a decade, the US finally gained control of these 2 countries. In the 1920’s, the US handed over the administration of Sulu and Mindanao to the Filipino Christian officials who were enemies of the Moros. This made the Moros of Sulu and Mindanao 2nd class citizens in their own homeland and very poor. Then in 1941, Japan declared war on the US and attacked and brutally colonized the Philippines including Sulu and Mindanao from 1941 to 1945. The US forces together with Filipino and Moro forces fought the Japanese. In 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima and another bomb in Nagasaki wiping out cities and killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians, forcing the Japanese to surrender to the US. Then in 1946, the Americans and the Philippine government forcibly incorporated Sulu and Mindanao into the Philippine state as the Philippines was granted independence by the US. In reality, mainly due to the trade imbalances between the two countries, the Philippines remained militarily and economically dependent on the US up to the present time resulting in its 3rd world status.

From all these, you must see that the Western Powers composed of the US, Spain, UK, Netherlands were greatly responsible for drawing the territorial lines of many Southeast Asian nations like the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia and not the Southeast Asians themselves. Now let’s head over to China. China is one of the cradles of civilization and predates that of Western Civilization by thousands of years. It already had a civilized society thousands of years before Jesus was born. China had an advanced civilization and had been a rich nation for a very long time until the mid 1800’s. From the 1620s to 1662, several armed conflicts between China and the Dutch occurred as the Dutch attempted to bully China into acceding to their trade demands just like what they did to Southeast Asian nations. However, China was very powerful and they defeated the Dutch forces.

Unfortunately for China in the 1800’s, the British loved the Chinese tea so much that the demand for it rose astronomically and soon after, there was a ”trade imbalance” between the British Empire and China such that the British could not anymore afford to buy their tea. The British devilishly figured that the only way they can get the money to buy Chinese tea was for them to force the Chinese to buy the British-backed production of Bengal opium. The Chinese officials did not agree but the British did everything they could to make the helpless Chinese citizens be addicted to opium.

The resulting addiction to opium of a large percentage of the Chinese population, weakened China and its economy. Later on, the British started attacking China and by 1842, they defeated the Chinese. They then forced China to agree on “unequal treaties” which started the Western exploitation of China. The British also legalized the opium trade which made the British empire, the pioneer and biggest Drug Lord in the world at that time as millions of Chinese were victimized into becoming opium addicts!!! In the following years, France, US and Russia would also exploit China by negotiating similar unequal treaties. In the late 1850’s, with the British not yet satisfied with their exploitation of China including the cession of Hong Kong Island, the British and the French with US and Russian involvement fought another war with China leading to more humiliations, defeats and further exploitation of China by the West. Quoting from an article in the Asia For Educators website entitled ‘The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment’:
“Conflicts for the rest of the century wrung more humiliating concessions from China: with Russia over claims in China’s far west and northeast in 1850 and 1860, with England over access to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in 1876, with France over northern Vietnam in 1884, with Japan over its claims to Korea and northeast China in 1895, and with many foreign powers after 1897 which demanded “spheres of influence,” especially for constructing railroads and mines. In 1900, an international army suppressed the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion in northern China, destroying much of Beijing in the process. Each of these defeats brought more foreign demands, greater indemnities that China had to repay, more foreign presence along the coast, and more foreign participation in China’s political and economic life. “

It is worth noting that the Boxer rebellion was a bloody anti-foreign and anti-Christian rebellion initiated by an organization called Yihequan which was composed mainly of Chinese martial artists like those who practiced
Kung-Fu, whom the Americans referred to as boxers. They blamed Western Imperialism together with the accompanying Christian missionary activities for the hardships the Chinese people were experiencing and for mocking traditional Chinese ceremonies and family relations. Some major causes of the unrest were the outbreaks of bubonic plague in rural China in 1855 and in the major seaports of Hong Kong and Guangzhou in 1894 that reached India in 1898. The 1890’s outbreak in China and India alone, may have killed as many as 13 million people. Many Chinese blamed the foreigners and Christian converts for the pestilence. Actually, there is reason to believe that the British and their allies manufactured the black plague that killed 13 million Indians and Chinese as mentioned in a 1907 speech by British socialist politician Henry Hyndman wherein he said:
“Famines occurred in India before our conquest; but continuous famine such as now afflicts some part of India every year was wholly unknown under Hindu or Mohammedan rule. Black plague has been known as an
epidemic in India for centuries; but black plague as an endemic pestilence working death all through the year had never been heard of till we brought to Hindustan, within the past generation, the full blessings of European civilization.” Later on he added “All the efforts of the unscrupulous Anglo-Indian press in India and at home to stir up the old ill-feeling between Mohammedans and Hindus will have little influence as against the
discontent and hatred engendered by the manufactured plague and the methods used for its suppression.”

To further lend credence to the possibility that the Western powers manufactured and spread bubonic plague as early as the late 1800’s, you can read the article: “Richard Pearson Strong and the iatrogenic plague disaster in Bilibid Prison, Manila, 1906” published in NCBI Pubmed and another article “Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965)” posted at the naturalnews.comwebsite. Both articles state that in the Philippines in 1906, US doctor Richard P. Strong conducted an experiment on prisoners of Manila’s Bilibid Prison by infecting them with cholera. However, a bottle of bubonic plague serum was mistakenly substituted for a bottle of cholera serum which led to the death of 13 prisoners.

Because of this overwhelming Chinese’ negative perception of foreigners, Empress Dowager Cixi supported the revolt of the martial artists. However, other members of the Qing imperial court supported the foreigners thus
splitting the Chinese officialdom. The empress dowager provided some Imperial army soldiers loyal to her to help the martial artists. She also enlisted the support of the elite Kansu Braves, a 10,000 strong Chinese
Muslim army that was considered the fiercest and bravest warriors in China and feared by both the Chinese and the foreigners. The Kansu Braves who hated the foreigners because of the opium trade, became the empress’ personal bodyguards and occasionally helped the martial artists in fighting the foreigners. In the end, the Eight-Nation Alliance forces composed of troops from the British Empire, Russia, Japan, France, United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary through their superior number and weaponry and the support of the anti-boxer Chinese army, subdued the martial artists and the supporting Chinese Imperial army and took control of Beijing. The empress dowager fled to Xi’an protected by the Kansu Braves.

From all these, one must realize that just like what happened to many Southeast Asian nations, China was being held at gunpoint when the territorial lines of China, Vietnam and Korea were being drawn by the Global Powers composed of the US, UK, Russia, France, Italy, other Western Powers and by the Asian power Japan. As a result of all these hideous oppressions committed by the Global Powers against China, China starting from the 1840’s became a poor country with semi-colonial status as many of their territories were then controlled by the Western powers and Japan.

During World War 2, the Chinese lost 14 million lives in its war against Japan. Then after World War 2, civil war between the Nationalist and the Communists divided China into two. The Communists got hold of mainland
China while the Nationalists were driven to Taiwan.

China has been poor for around 150 years as a result of the oppression of the imperialist foreign invaders including Japan and especially the West. China became an economic power only recently which was less than
20 years ago.

As to the issue of the disputed islands or features in the South China Sea, let us give ourselves a little background regarding the claims made by China and the Philippines on the disputed islands. Let’s take Spratlys which is also called Nansha by the Chinese, for example.

First, let me just mention that there are members of the Sulu Sultanate who are claiming that there was a 15th century treaty between China and the Sulu Sultanate where China supposedly recognized the disputed islands
as part of the Sulu Sultanate. However, as of now, it seems that the Sulu sultanate has yet to present compelling evidence to the public to support its claim. Therefore, due to lack of relevant information and in the interest of time, its claim will not be covered in this article.

According to globalsecurity.org, “Chinese claims are based on a number of historical events, including the naval expeditions to the Spratly Islands by the Han Dynasty in 110 AD and the Ming Dynasty from 1403-1433 AD. Chinese fishermen and merchants have worked the region over time, and China is using archaeological evidence to bolster its claims of sovereignty. In the 19th and early 20th century, China asserted claims to the Spratly and Paracel islands.”

Here’s an excerpt from a research paper entitled “China’s Claim of Sovereignty over Spratly and Paracel Islands: A Historical and Legal Perspective” written by Teh-Kuang Chang: “China’s claim of sovereignty over the Islands in the South China Sea is based upon discovery and occupation.

1. Acquisition by Discovery
   China discovered the Nansha and Xisha Islands over 2,100 years ago, during the Han Dynasty. The discoverers, Admiral Yang Pu and his subordinates, were sent by the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. …

2. Acquisition Based on Occupation
….Since Admiral Cheng Ho’s first trip to the South China Sea in 1405, China has maintained continuous sovereignty over the Nansha Islands. Cheng Ho was sent as a special envoy of Emperor Cheng Zu of Ming Dynasty. He represented that China included the Nansha Islands in his Cheng Ho Maritime Map and he formally named the Nansha Islands “Wanlishitang” (Ten Thousand Li Rocky Reefs). Cheng Ho’s conduct constitutes official behavior on the part of the State of China. Nansha has been included on the Chinese claim of sovereignty over the Nansha and Xisha Islands since then, and China has perfectly met the theory and practice of traditional and contemporary international law. …
The following evidence demonstrates that China’s claim of sovereignty over Nansha and Xisha Islands is based upon effective sovereignty.

1. For several hundred years, Chinese from Hainan regularly went to make a living on Nansha and Xisha Islands and settled there to build houses, temples and tombs for those who died there. The recent discoveries of
coins, door frames, and Chinaware have established the evidence of Chinese settlers in those islands.

2. During the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the Qing Dynasty continuously published six maps, all of which include the name of the Nansha Islands, such as the Da Qing Wa Xih Jian Quan Tu (China and Foreign World Map of the Great Qing Empire), Qingzhih Xen Feng Tu (Qing Dynasty Provincial Map) (1724), Huang Qing Zhih Xen Feng Tu (Royal Qing Dynasty Province Map) (1755), Da Qing Yi Tong Tian Xia Quan Tu (Map of the Unified Territory of the Great Qing Empire) (1767), Qing Kuei Fu, Zhou Hsian, Dian General map (1800), and a new edition of the Da Qing United Territory of the Great Qing Empire (1817). All included Nansha Island by the
name “Wanlishitang.”

3. In 1883, when Germany tried to make a survey of Nansha Island, the Qing government dynasty protested. Germany respected Chinese sovereignty and agreed to stop the surveys.

4. In 1909, the Qing Dynasty sent Admiral Li Zhun to lead the Chinese navy to inspect the islands of Xisha and Nansha, and to rename of the islands and reefs. ……

5. …

6. In 1939, Japan occupied Hainan, as well as the Xisha and Nansha Islands, as an extension of aggression against China rather than considering these islands as belong to Vietnam, which was invaded by Japan in late 1941.

7. In November of 1946, the Chinese Government sent representatives with warships to take over the Islands of Nansha and Xisha after the Japanese surrender. Also, the Chinese Government set up an Administration to
exercise jurisdiction over the archipelagos of Xisha and Nansha under the Kwantung (Guangdong) Province, and later the Hainan Administrative District. “

As to the Philippines, the Filipinos have been conditioned to think for so many years up to now that a part of Spratlys belong to the Philippines. Well it started in 1946, when the Philippines just gained independence from
the US after World War 2. Since Japan just de-occupied and surrendered Spratlys to the Chinese and with China not yet having enough economic and military power to retake effective control of the islands, Filipino nationalists who recognized the value of the Spratlys, saw the opportunity to claim the islands. The US warned them that Spratlys islands were not part of the Philippines according to the 1898 treaty between Spain and
America wherein Spain sold the Philippines to the US. Then in 1950, even President Quirino said that the Philippines would not claim the Spratlys as long as China holds it. However, in the mid 1950s, when US and UK
oil companies showed interest in exploring the Spratlys for oil, a Filipino adventurer Tomas Coloma formally claimed the islands in 1956, named it Freedomland (Kalayaan) and stole China’s (ROC) flag from the Taiping
Island which is part of Spratlys. Both Beijing and Taipei protested and ROC reoccupied the Taiping Island. At first the Philippine government did not support Coloma’s claim but due to the possibility of finding oil in the
area, the Philippines gradually became interested in Coloma’s claim such that in 1971, Philippine President Marcos officially declared the Kalayaan islands to be part of the Philippines. Later in 1978, he issued Presidential Decree No. 1596 proclaiming that the majority of the Spratlys Islands belonged to the Philippines. Since the 1970’s, the Philippines has occupied some portions of the Spratlys.

For a little more detail, let me quote an article entitled “Philippines’ Lopsided South China Sea Policy ” from the The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative website: “The Philippines, specifically under the Marcos dictatorship (1965-1986), was among the first countries to build an airstrip along with advanced military facilities in the South China Sea. Recognizing the Darwinian nature of the territorial struggles among half a dozen nations in the area, Manila shunned legal arbitration in favor of a de facto exercise of sovereignty over disputed features in the Spratly chain of islands……Confident of its military capabilities, and reassured by robust American military presence on its soil, the Marcos regime managed to exercise control over numerous features in the Spratly chain of islands, including the much-prized Thitu (Pag-Asa) Island, the second largest feature in the area. Thanks to its strategic foresight during Cold War, the Philippines enjoyed enormous tactical advantage relative to other claimant states in the area.”

Here’s another excerpt from an article entitled “The Spratlys: Marcos’ legacy, or curse?” from the Philippine Daily Inquirer: “Martial law changed a lot of things. In 1974 Marcos threw Coloma in a Camp Crame cell, on
grounds of “usurpation of authority” – his drinking buddies at the National Press Club (he wrote for the Manila Bulletin’s shipping section) called him “Admiral.” The real reason for his incarceration though was something
else. He was released several months later when he turned over all claims to the islands under a “Deed of Assignment and Waiver of Rights” to the Marcos government –for one peso. Then in 1978, basing his claim on
Cloma’s discovery of the islands, Marcos formally annexed the archipelago and made it a municipality of Palawan through Presidential Decree No. 1596. … Marcos certainly knew his international law, especially that
part which in effect says that occupation is ownership. Right after Marcos got Coloma’s “deed of assignment,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines under Defense Secretary Enrile quickly and covertly transformed the
group’s biggest but uninhabited island into a fortification and named it “Pag-Asa Island.” A heavily armed battalion of Marines was stationed there, and a 1.3 km- runway was constructed, making it easily accessible
from Manila. Marcos even had it populated with over 200 civilians. It was the first and probably the last time our country added a new area to our territory beyond what the Spanish turned over to the US when they left
in 1898.”

Now let’s fast forward to the present. If we take a look at the decision of the Hague Tribunal, you will notice that the Philippines’ claim to any part of the Spratlys islands was not emphasized. This is understandable since
there’s a big possibility that the Philippine claim will not hold water when compared to China’s historical claim. But with China not present at the trial and not in a position to properly defend itself, the tribunal, not having
been presented a lot more of China’s historical evidence, easily rejected China’s historical claim of sovereignty on the disputed islands. Furthermore, the counsels and advocates of the Philippines, succeeded in convincing the tribunal that all of the disputed islands cannot be considered as islands in accordance with the definition set by UNCLOS and therefore none of these islands deserve maritime entitlements such as the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

But the next thing I’m going to tell you is quite disturbing and even shocking! You see, despite the absence of the opposition, Filipino lawyers were not the ones who led the Philippine team in its legal battle against China, instead a US legal team headed by US lawyers from the US-based Foley Hoag law firm and not a single Filipino lawyer, stood as counsels and advocates for the Philippines. How can the Philippines call itself a ‘sovereign’ nation when it still relies on the US for a supposedly not-so difficult job such as this? It is an annoying reminder of the undignified practice of hiring US imports without a trace of Filipino blood to play for the Philippine national basketball team during international competitions especially against China. These practices are an insult to the Filipino people! Are we really that incompetent when it comes to mental and physical
capabilities? I don’t think so!

Actually, the arbitration just unveiled what this battle is really all about. It is not really a battle between two Asian nations with China as the oppressor and the Philippines as the oppressed but it is actually a battle between China as the oppressed and the US, UK and their allies being the oppressors. This is just a repeat of what happened more than a century ago when the Eight Nation Alliance invaded, exploited and destroyed China!

What we are seeing now with China harassing Filipino fishermen is again just one of the symptoms of an ageold disease. A lot of Filipinos today see China as a bully but what many Filipinos don’t realize is that in the eyes
of China, when China was still poor and the Philippines was relatively rich and powerful with the backing of the US and without an iota of valid historical claim to the disputed islands, the Philippines bullied China back in 1956 when Coloma claimed a part of Spratlys and in the 1970s when Marcos built military facilities in some portions of the disputed islands. Now, when China got economically and militarily stronger, it’s getting back
what they think is rightfully theirs. They see the Philippines not just a bully back in the 1970s under Marcos, but also an ally of the US, which they consider as the world’s greatest bully. Therefore, rightly or wrongly, the
Chinese looks at outsiders especially those allied with the US (especially the Philippines – their former bully) as infiltrators going inside what they think is their territory. As former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir said in
an article from ajw.asahi.com back in 2010, “When China becomes rich and it is threatened by the United States wanting to have all other countries confront China, that, of course, makes China defend itself and led to
its strengthened defense.” China is no saint but so are the US, its allies and the Philippines.

Common sense dictates that, if really there’s a problem between two sovereign and neighboring nations, these two nations should first resolve the issues diplomatically between themselves rather than call on outsiders to resolve the problem for them.

This commonsensical approach is what former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir would probably have done if he were in President Aquino’s shoes since according to a 2010 article from ajw.asahi.com, he said that China
is not a threat and in an article dated April 27, 2010 from www.thestar.com.my, it was reported that Mahathir believed that Malaysia will benefit from China’s economic growth through mutual cooperation with China.

This commonsensical approach is what China has been trying to do as expressed in the statement made by China’s foreign minister in 2014 saying “Consultations and negotiations by countries directly concerned would
be the most effective and viable way to resolve the disputes, a policy which also conforms to international law and common practices… It is the responsibility and obligation of both China and ASEAN to uphold peace and
stability in the South China Sea region.” In 2016, after the release of the decision of the Hague tribunal, China repeated this position and further stated “Pending final settlement, China is also ready to make every effort
with the states directly concerned to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature, including joint development in relevant maritime areas, in order to achieve win-win results and jointly maintain peace and
stability in the South China Sea.”

Just imagine, if China and the ASEAN nations worked harmoniously together in sharing the natural wealth in their area, all nations involved would prosper dramatically. Sadly, this scenario doesn’t seem to sit well with the US led Western alliance as this concept contradicts the “Capitalism with Rothschild Banking” Economic System which the Western Powers including Israel are globally enforcing.

Let us all hope and pray to the ever-loving God that the leaders of these Western Powers will have a change of heart and that the above mentioned commonsensical approach is what the Philippines’ new and maverick
President Rodrigo R. Duterte and the great former President Fidel V. Ramos will do.