Duterte jokes that the Philippines should be made a Chinese province
“If China were a woman, I’d woo her,” said the Philippine president
Rodrigo Duterte is apparently not at all worried about China’s military build-up in the South China Sea, arguing that the armed island installations are not directed at his country and even joking that the Philippines might as well be a Chinese province anyway.
“If you want, just make us a province, like Fujian,” Duerte quipped on Monday at a gathering in Manila of Chinese-Filipino businessmen that was also attended by Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua.
“Province of Philippines, Republic of China,” Duterte continued, apparently unaware that this name refers instead to Taiwan. “If China were a woman, I’d woo her.”
China lays claim to the vast majority of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes that is also rich in resources to boot. In recent years, China’s sweeping claims have led to territorial disputes with Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. In order to strengthen its claims against its neighbors, China has begun creating artificial islands from reefs and filling them with soldiers, missiles, and airplane runways.
However, Durterte apparently thinks that militarized manmade islands popping up in the sea near his country is a no big deal, arguing that Beijing obviously isn’t planning to use their military force against his country, but to counter US power in the region.
“It’s not intended for us. The contending ideological powers of the world or the geopolitics has greatly changed,” Duterte said. “It’s really intended against those who the Chinese think would destroy them and that is America.”
While Washington has no territorial claims in the South China Sea, it has frequently voiced its objections to Beijing’s claims and artificial island-building, sending “freedom of navigation” patrols to sail near the islands, provoking indignation on the Chinese side.
Before Duterte took office, the Philippines spent years challenging China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea at an international arbitration tribunal in the Hague. In July 2016, the court sided with the Philippines, ruling that China’s claims to historic and economic rights in the South China had no basis in law.
However, China refused to accept the verdict and Duterte has failed to press the point, deciding instead to put the South China Sea issue on the back burner while focusing on investment and trade deals with Beijing. “Only China can help us,” Duterte declared before a trip to the Chinese capital in 2016 during which he disavowed the US and waxed rhapsodic about his country’s budding romance with China.
In his speech on Monday, Duterte reiterated that he will go about solving his country’s territorial disputes with China diplomatically, because a military path is an impossibility.
“We cannot go there, ride in our whatever, Navy, the gray ships, the Coast Guard and start waving our rifles. We cannot do that today. It is unrealistic. It cannot be true,” Duterte said. “Then why would I go there, bring my Navy, my soldiers, my police and everything only to be slaughtered?”
“I will not commit the lives of the Filipinos only to die unnecessarily. I will not go into a battle which I can never win. We cannot do that today. It is unrealistic,” he continued.
Duterte’s opponents have often accused the fiery, outspoken president of simply rolling over to China on issues of national sovereignty and have pointed to his joke about the Philippines becoming a Chinese province as yet another indication of his subservience to Beijing.
SunStar Philippines relays some of these critical reactions:
“It is absolutely unacceptable for the President, the top diplomat of the country, to joke about making the Philippines a province of China,” Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano said.
“Such irresponsible banter is a slap in the face of the many Filipinos, including our soldiers stationed in our occupied islands, who work tirelessly to defend our territorial integrity from China.”
Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin warned that the such jokes will negate diplomatic attempts to assert Philippine sovereignty. “It’s becoming a habit of the President to defer always to the wishes of China and such joke manifests his willful subservience at the expense of our sovereignty,” he said.
“With him as President, we will become inutile to assert our rights even through diplomacy and will be sold to China for a pittance. The joke is on us if we don’t call him out for such irresponsible statements,” Villarin added.
During his speech, Duterte also boasted that negotiations were underway for a joint exploration scheme of his country’s resources with China in which China would receive one-third of the oil.
“There’s negotiations for joint exploration. Can you beat that? Just ignore the missiles there, it’s not intended for us,” he said.