
Originally Posted by
Bears Grill
One thing's for sure about this issue: We're not gonna win this one using by waging war against China or holding Filipino-Chinese as hostage. Regarding the latter, China has a different mindset when it wants to pursue its objectives. The lives of Filipino-Chinese are of no consequence to them. Even if the Filipino-Chinese can be our representatives in this territorial dispute, I don't think China is going to bow down and say "ooops. my bad." Just take a look at Taiwan. Just take a look at Hong Kong and how China is caving in to Hong Kong Chinese pro-democracy movements. Good luck to that! It doesn't even have problems rolling a tank over its own people.
I've heard it mentioned by Bongbong Marcos (not sure) and Duterte that China wants to engage us in some closed-door bilateral talks to settle this issue. This fact has been known for some time, but somehow P-Noy would rather jumpstart his ratings by being combative in his rhetoric against China. China, as you know, puts face-saving as a high priority and it wants to look "respected" and not bowing down to any nation in front of the world. When one deals with it in a dispute, one must make sure that there's a face-saving avenue somewhere for it wiggle around. I think the closed-door bilateral talks was a hint. I think I heard Duterte said that he once spoke to a Chinese ambassador who confided that all these activities going on at the Spratlys were "chess moves" against American presence in our region.
Let's say that, in a bilateral talk, China moves for a "joint-exploration" and perhaps a "naval base" similar to the one we grant the U.S. And behind closed doors, China signs a secret document that says it recognizes our rightful ownership of the disputed islands. We get what we want and they get to save face and score tactical move against the US. Should we say YES? Or should we say F U and go to war?