Well, here is a subject I've wanted to tackle for a long time, but it never seemed like I was quite ready to address every aspect of the absurdity of it. In plain fact I feel like the multiple layers of falsehood in the lie I am about to address run so deep that I STILL have not collected enough of my thoughts to address it all, but in light of China's recent (and utterly laughable) denouncement of Japan over their rule of the Senkaku Islands (wrongfully known as the Diaoyu Islands), the pressing need to speak is such that it is better to speak up imperfectly now than to let the moment pass in the hopes of speaking up more perfectly at a later time. The issue I am referring to, of course, is none other than the infamous "Nine Dash Line," one of the most moronic lies forced down the throats of anyone in earshot of any CCP member since Mao Zedong attempted to call his movement an example of Democracy. To say that China's claim on these waters is false would be to undershoot the target. Rather, it is built upon multiple, mutually contradictory fallacies, based in turn on speculation and outdated claims no longer holding relevance, supported only by Chinese legends, and enforced in a manner identical to the actions China screams about when they are committed by any other nation, in violation of a charter China swears by in all other matters. Today I will set the record straight. I have no doubt that if there are any Chinese Nationals reading this they will attempt to shout me down and silence me by downvoting this and flagging it. Others will shriek all manner of invective in the comments, outraged that I dared to speak. Still others will try to sneer and jeer in the comments saying I "know nothing," though they will cite no sources that do not originate from the Chinese Government. And frankly, I will take that as proof that I am right, because China has no argument they can use in this matter except to attempt to deny their opposition from ever speaking, which is the universal sign of tyrants fearing the truth.
Let's begin with the obvious. Despite Philippine President Duterte's unusual unwillingness to address the issue, it is one that must be of even greater importance to Filipinos than to the rest of the world, given the brazen, unmasked militarization of China's illegal artificial islands in these realms. For Xi Jinpeng to have looked Rodi Duterte in the eye and said with a straight face "they have no military purpose" even while Duterte held satellite photos in his hand of Chinese fighter jets there, is a shocking level of deception and proves that China's word in these matters cannot be taken seriously. It also proves that China's intentions in the area are aggressive, and aggressive enough that Xi feels the need to hide them from his neighbors.
So, where did China's claim come from?
Simply put, it came from the Chinese government's mouth. There is no other basis for it. China has repeatedly insisted that its claims are "indisuptable ," but they have provided no evidence to support them other than "because we said so ." They claim it is theirs because it belonged to the Qing Dynasty , and to prove that they use "scholars" whom they appointed, whom they pay, whom they will imprison for coming to any conclusion other than theirs, and who were bottle fed the same Chinese legends in grade school . There are three problems with this claim. The first is that they have never produced any documents verifying this, the second is that if ancient claims were valid in modern days than all of China should rightly belong to Mongolia , and the third (which I will get to in more detail in a later article) is that, in view of the fact that THE BLOODY QING DYNASTY WAS NOT EVEN CHINESE (they were Manchu , a tribe of nomads so hated and feared by Chinese that the entire purpose of building the Great Wall was to keep them and the proto-Mongol Xiongnu OUT of China, and Sun Zhongshan even referred to them as "foreign invaders" when he overthrew the last Qing Emperor in 1911; try to imagine India sending envoys to Australia and Canada claiming sovereignty over them as the successor state of the British Empire and you'll have roughly the same historical situation), then referring to the PRC as the "successor state of the 'Empire of the Great Qing' " makes roughly as much historical sense as saying Romania is the successor state of the Russian Empire because it was part of the Soviet Union.
One of the most laughable statements made by the Chinese in support of their claim is "we first declared this claim in 1947, and none of the nations staking rival claims now said anything about it then. The problems with this are also manifold. The first is that the PRC did not exist in 1947, it was founded in 1949. Ergo, IF the 1947 claims had any validity (and they did not), then the sea would belong to the government that was making this claim, namely, the R.O.C. (Taiwan). The second claim is that most of the nations in question were not nations yet, and could not issue protests, and by the time they gained their independence, the R.O.C. had fallen and in its place was the PRC. Well, you can guess that none of these nations would file protests with the PRC over a claim made by the R.O.C, because for one thing there was no claim by the PRC explicitly claiming the waters claimed by the R.O.C, and for another thing because very few of these nations even recognized the PRC's legitimacy (let alone had any diplomatic relations with it) until years later. In short, there was no one to file these protests, no one to hear them, and no place to send them. Try to imagine asking someone born in 1984 why the did not protest to someone born in 1980, about a decision made in 1970. Well, that is precisely what China is doing when they say "none of these nations filed any complaints when we first declared this claim."
And finally, there is the glaringly obvious answer that makes the rest of this moot: the 12-mile rule. In short, International Maritime Laws, signed and acknowledged by China, say that no nation has sovereignty over anything more than 12 miles off of their shore. China's claim of ownership of the entire West Philippine Sea (as it was rightfully known before the term "South China Sea" was applied) is against agreements even China has made.
So Why is it Dangerous to Allow China to Continue?
For one thing, history. China has a long history of bullying this entire region. For centuries, every nation in the region was forced to pay tribute to the Han Throne or suffer the wrath of their armies. For anyone paying attention to Xi Jinpeng's rhetoric, especially after the 19th Party Congress, it's not difficult to see that he is attempting to re-establish this. By God, the Belt-and-Road Initiative isn't even hiding its status as a vehicle for this purpose, as Sri Lanka found out. To allow China to continue their military buildup in this region, in light of their quite openly-stated quest for global pre-eminence, would be to send a message to them that the world is perfectly okay bowing to China.
Another, and far less symbolic reason why it is dangerous, is oil, and not just the reserves that may be buried under the sea lane in question. Trillions (that's with a "tr") of U.S. Dollars worth of oil are shipped through this lane every year, more than a quarter of all oil shipped in the world. Every single drop of oil that goes to Japan, for example, passes through this sea, and Japan has virtually no reserves of its own, though it is one of the most modern (and subsequently oil-dependent) nations on the planet. Given China's long-standing and well-documented petulant grudge against Japan, and China's history of using economic pressure against any country it considers guilty of an "insult," giving China the power to stop oil shipments bound for Japan would be tantamount to putting Japan (a nation that has contributed much to the modern world) at the mercy of China (the most notorious Human Rights violator of modern times). It is no wonder why Japan has so heavily weighed the option of re-arming, then. They are no fools, and they know what a band of heavy-handed goons like the CCP would do if they held a grip around Japan's throat like that.
But there is a nation who would face an even more pressing danger than a lack of oil. For the Philippines, control over this waterway is a matter of the life and death of millions. The Spratly shoals, for example, are home to the fish that provide the protein desperately needed for the very survival of a massive percentage of the Philippine population, and the Chinese Coast Guard has a history of attacking these fishermen under the pretense of "defending their sovereignty," despite a 2016 World Court Ruling that says these claims of sovereignty have no basis. Though China has repeatedly expressed a desire for "cooperation" in the area, and have asked for a "Code of Conduct," hinting that they would allow Philippine fishermen to fish in the region as long as they complied with Chinese law.
Read that sentence again, slowly.
The Chinese are invading the Philippines, establishing bases where Filipinos fish to survive, firing on them arbitrarily, and then claiming they will "generously allow" Filipinos to continue the fishing that they need for their survival as long as they obey Chinese law, in their own waters. When you come into someone else's turf, impose your laws upon them, and say you are now the one who decides if they are "allowed" to continue surviving or not, there is a word for that: Imperialism. How ironic is it that the ones engaged in Imperialism here are the ones whose entire foreign policy since 1949 has been based on nothing, and I do mean absolutely nothing, other than repeated shrieks of "Western Imperialism?" They can dress it up in any rhetoric they like, but fact remains that they are already behaving as a military occupier, subjecting innocent civilians to military force for no "crime" other than survival.
Now then, is there any question left as to whether China's illegal and hostile actions in this region are in the world's best interests? Or have we all realized now that there is no right, just, and Humanitarian thing to do other than to drive them out immediately, even by force if necessary?
So What Can Be Done?
Plenty can be done. The PLA assets in the region, though more than a match for the poorly-funded and ill-equipped Philippine Navy, are not nearly as advanced or dangerous as China would like the world to see them. The U.S. Navy has massive assets not far from the area (including three, count 'em: three of our aircraft carriers) thanks to North Korea. As the North Korean crisis is... well, I won't say "solved" but seems to be on pause for now while Kim plays nice for the Olympics, that is more than enough power to get the point across. If President Duterte would invoke the mutual defense accord with the United States, given Trump's recent hard-line on China, both in trade and in defense , coupled with his obvious efforts to reaffirm U.S.-Philippine ties , it would seem rather obvious that he would be quite eager to send the U.S. Navy for a little stroll through International Waters in the South China Sea. Nor would the U.S. be the only one. Japan (who, as stated above, has an obvious interest in keeping China from controlling this lane), India (who has plenty of incentive to show force in the face of China's increasing efforts to surround and isolate them), and even France have all made a point of sending powerful naval assets sailing through this region in a Tour de Force for the eyes of the expansionist PLA. There has been much attention paid to the "Quad Alliance " of India, Japan, Australia and the U.S, and make no mistake: China is terrified. The amount of time CGTV and China-U.S. Focus spend on their Facebook pages screaming "Stop Trying to make Indo-Pacific Happen" is proof of that. I assert that this "quad" alliance should be more than a quad, and that the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan, all of whom reason to fear the PLA Navy's bullying operations in the region, should consider joining this alliance.
The stakes are high. China's villainy is on display for the world to see here. But they are not the fearsome force they want to be portrayed as . Indeed, the fact that they are going to such great lengths to look strong is evidence of weakness. As Sun Tzu said, "when strong, appear weak. When weak, appear strong." If China was ready or able to defend their illegal positions in these waters, they would be doing everything they could to look weak and lure their rivals into a trap wherein they could deliver a crushing blow. But if we do not act now, they WILL be strong later. A three-foot-long alligator is living under your house. What do you do? Sell the house and run away, admitting the alligator won, crawl under the house and wrestle the alligator knowing you might get some scars but you can handle him, or ignore him because you do not want the scars, and then have to deal with the same alligator later when he is five and a half feet long?
I have family in the Philippines, and I'm not about to let the alligator have the house.
I have no desire to see my family deal with a five-and-a-half-foot alligator later on.
Time to crawl under the house and deal with the ****ing gator.