Rockingham, North Carolina—As a registered Republican I don’t agree with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, on a lot of political issues but the US-China-Taiwan tension is an exception.
When Pelosi visited Taiwan despite the objections of China last week I found myself lending support to her stance. That’s my kind of politician, someone who wouldn’t kowtow to China despite their growing political, economic and military presence in the world stage. And we haven’t seen the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict by a long shot.
Remember, China warned Pelosi and her delegation from visiting Taiwan as it would strain already fragile relations between them and the US. Such a warning is to be frank quite ridiculous as the US is no mere puppet for China to pull their strings whenever it pleases them. And the Biden administration shows no signs of backing down so far.
Pelosi’s visit was no sightseeing trip but one focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance—something which China, despite being capitalist in its economic governance, remains hard core communist in its Maoist ideology. And that’s something that the Philippines for all its rough and tumble descent back into the early years of the Marcos rule had yet to fall into.
Whether that’s a good or bad thing for the country depends heavily on which side of the divisive political fence the Filipinos are in. One thing I know for certain and I’m certainly no geopolitical expert is that China is not a favorite among Filipinos despite the six year rule of former president Rodrigo Duterte and the efforts of President Bongbong Marcos to retain normal diplomatic ties with China.
Just ask any Pinoy about which country they trust and most likely the US will come out on top followed by any number of Asian and European countries. China won’t be in the top five or maybe even in the top 10 and the recent decision to scrap the joint projects with China like the railway system surely won’t win any brownie points for China from the Filipino people.
It’s clear as day which side the Filipinos are on in this US-China-Taiwan feud and the only question worth looking into is whether this will result in actual escalation of conflict. That’s what matters to the Philippines which is already roiling from the impact of rising fuel prices thanks to Russia’s posturing and desire for dominance in the European stage.
As a Filipino-American with roots in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental I could only watch with concern along with fellow Filipinos on the developing tension between the nations. The US government at this point can ill afford to enter into a conflict with China as it struggles to revive its economy already battered by both the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Again, it’s just China repeating its claim of ownership of Taiwan to the whole world but even its government knows that the rest of the countries across the globe maintain some sort of diplomatic channels with what they consider to be a renegade province. And diplomatic niceties aside, Taiwan is doing quite nicely on their own without interference from Communist China.
Filipinos shouldn’t be afraid to speak out against China specifically against its communist government which has expansionist designs in Asia beyond reclaiming Taiwan. Sure we have diplomatic ties but I’d like to believe that unlike the stifled political climate in Beijing we Filipinos still have enough freedom in our country to speak our minds on issues we consider relevant to us as a people.
Which brings us back to the US. Certainly some local political figures have their say on the US-China-Taiwan feud and I may find time to air their thoughts on this issue. But allow me to digress as I am reminded of that little argument former president Donald Trump had with US mainstream media concerning his description of the COVID-19 virus as ‘Wuhan virus’ owing to reports that are verified that the virus came from Wuhan, China.
Some US reporters questioned why Trump preferred to link China to the virus even if they claimed that the reports still don’t provide conclusive evidence of Chinese involvement. To which Trump nonchalantly replied ‘the virus came from China’ and proceeded to chide the reporters for questioning his choice of words. Whatever you can say about Trump, at least he did point out the obvious.
The obvious fact being that China is being exempted from accountability on their role in the pandemic by some sympathetic, left-leaning US media outlets. Heck, even liberal American talk show hosts like Jon Stewart pointed to China’s role in the pandemic. And now China is posturing anew on the world stage as if their Spratlys bullying isn’t enough to stomach. Bida !
