Remembering Pearl Harbor...

Pearl Harbor is a stark reminder to the wannabe imperialists in Beijing on the perils of underestimating American resolve in the Western Pacific... what initially appeared to be a tragic day for America... was actually the Big Bang which propelled it to Superpower status... and was the Death Knell which heralded the beginning of the end for the Empire of Japan...

But looking back... had Pearl Harbor not happened... would the fate of the Filipino People have been much more different?...

1941 Redux...

just like in 1941... the Philippines is once again a poorly-defended country without strategic depth that is facing a gargantuan aggressor... but as the Empire of Japan tragically discovered in WWII, invading the Philippines is one thing... holding on to it is another... we are not just another Manchuria or Tibet... the Western socio-cultural ties of the Philippines will guarantee that Beijing's imperial dreams will meet a tragic end at the bottom of the West Philippine Sea... if they dare move militarily against us...

A Chinese proverb for the Overlords of Beijing...

What if the Panatag Shoal Crisis is just a "Wag the Dog" tactic?

if the Panatag Shoal crisis is just a "wag the dog" tactic of Beijing's overlords to strengthen national unity... by creating a "we against the world" atmosphere in the country (remember Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution?)... it will fail... primarily on the grounds of credibility... Mao's Long March Generation was never hounded by fat offshore bank account allegations... and does not have online social media to contend with...

as the Chinese Communist Party has correctly identified recently... the biggest threat to the People's Republic are not its neighbors... it is CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES...

diverting the attention of the Chinese masses from this problem... by deliberately instigating "Wag the Dog" conflicts with China's neighbors... will not only... not make the problem go away... but will create more problems... enough problems to potentially push the People's Republic over the abyss of political disintegration... and worse... maybe even total annihilation...

i hope the overlords of Beijing can spell B-A-L-K-A-N-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N... or H-I-R-O-S-H-I-M-A...

A picture paints a thousand words...

Here Comes PATO!

"Mrs. Clinton’s foray into the South Pacific to pivot U.S. foreign policy toward Asia is clearly an attempt to re-create another defunct Cold War-era alliance, the South East Asia treaty Organization (SEATO), which was composed of the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, France, and Pakistan. The transformation of NATO into PATO – the Pacific-Atlantic Treaty Organization – is, like the former CENTO and SEATO, directed against China and Russia". [Wayne Madsen, Strategic Culture Foundation, 09/07/2012]

As currently envisioned, PATO will include most Pacific Island Forum states (i.e. Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Palau, Vanuatu, Nauru, Tonga, etc.).

The circling of wagons in the Pacific... 21st Century Edition... has begun...

NOT AT OUR EXPENSE!!!

almost six (6) months had passed since we pulled-out all of our naval assets from Panatag Shoal... did Beijing reciprocate the gesture?... of course not!

we have totally misread the real underlying cause of Beijing's recent bellicose behavior at the Shoal... it is not about corals, clams, sea turtles or fishing rights... it is not about oil or natural gas...

it is all about a paradigm shift on how Beijing sees itself vis-a-vis the rest of the world...

and this was summed up by Beijing's overlords in just six (6) words: CHINA MUST BECOME A MARITIME POWER

against the backdrop of such self-actualization goal... our recent diplomatic initiative are mere flies in Beijing's ointment... annoying?... yes... but with a dip of a solitary finger can easily be flicked into the wind... and ignored...

it is, therefore, now time for the National Leadership of the Philippine Republic to try another tack in addressing the Shoal dispute... and that is to send our naval assets back to the Shoal...

this will send a clear message to Beijing that... although we wish them all the luck in the pursuit of their geopolitical ambitions...

it will not be achieved at the expense of the territorial integrity of OUR REPUBLIC!  

Beijing Seeks UNCLOS Intervention on Diaoyu

this is just a face-saving gesture to the Chinese masses... obviously, Beijing has bitten more than it can chew...

had the Japanese been as defenseless as the Vietnamese at Johnson Reef, Beijing would have mowed them down with 40mm AA fire too... but Beijing perfectly knows that the Japanese Self-Defense Force would make mince-meat out of its budding navy and air force in a conventional war scenario...

which will leave it with just one viable military option... and that is to lob ballistic missiles across the East China Sea... which is a very expensive proposition if one is diplomatically-constrained in using only conventional warheads... and if those missiles have to run the gauntlet of US ABM technology...

Beijing is now back-pedalling... and remember what Sun Tzu said on a back-pedalling adversary: "when the enemy retreats, we pursue"...

the Philippines should grab this opportunity to quash in an international court all the historically fraudulent "Nine-Dash Line" claims of Beijing in the West Philippine Sea...

so that we can all live happily ever after...

West Philippine Sea is now official

Philippines, Japan, China: Will History Repeat Itself?

The Philippines and Japan once contributed to the collapse of the last true Chinese Imperial Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty (the last Imperial Dynasty which ruled China, the Qing, was a Manchu dynasty, not a Chinese one).

"During the last years of Wanli's reign and those of his two successors, an economic crisis developed that was centered around a sudden widespread lack of the empire's chief medium of exchange: Silver...

Philip IV of Spain (ruled in 1621–65) began cracking down on illegal smuggling of silver from Mexico and Peru across the Pacific towards China, in favor of shipping American-mined silver directly from Spain to Manila...

In 1639, the new Tokugawa regime of Japan shut down most of its foreign trade with European powers, causing a halt of yet another source of silver coming into China...

These events occurring at roughly the same time caused a dramatic spike in the value of silver and made paying taxes nearly impossible for most provinces. People began hoarding precious silver as there was progressively less of it, forcing the ratio of the value of copper to silver into a steep decline...

In the 1630s, a string of one thousand copper coins was worth an ounce of silver; by 1640 this was reduced to the value of half an ounce; by 1643 it was worth roughly one-third of an ounce...

For peasants this was an economic disaster, since they paid taxes in silver while conducting local trade and selling their crops with copper coins..." (Wikipedia)

This time around, it is not about Silver... 

But about Islands, Shoals and Reefs... 

Will history repeat itself?

China vs. Japan at Diaoyu

China and Japan is about to come to blows as a result of Tokyo's decision to nationalize the remaining privately-owned Diaoyu islands...

but while the PLA (People's Liberation Army) has proven in Korea that it is a force to be reckoned with in land warfare... the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy) has nothing noteworthy to show that it too deserves the respect of the major navies of the world... the video clip currently circulating in YouTube showing how it literally massacred defenseless Vietnamese sailors at Johnson Reef just further casts doubts on its reputation as a true warfighting formation...

at Diaoyu, the PLAN will be testing its mettle against the descendants of one of the most powerful naval force of the 20th Century...

unless, it reaches for its nuke arsenal... i do not see how the PLAN can stand up to the current reincarnation of the JIN (Japanese Imperial Navy)...

so the leaders of Beijing should tread carefully on this issue... because they might end up getting humiliated in this confrontation...

and humiliated men often resort to irrational means...

Divide et Impera at Vladivostok

At Vladivostok...

Beijing took the time to talk to Vietnam... but not the Philippines...

Beijing took the time to talk to Brunei... but not the Philippines...

it is starting to emerge that Beijing's pet peeve vis-a-vis its Nine-Dash Line territorial grab in the West Philippine Sea... is the Philippines...

but then... as former subjects of Western Colonial Powers... the peoples of Malaya Irredenta (and Vietnam) already have extensive experience with Divide-and-Rule tactics...

so it is doubtful whether Beijing's latest bag of tricks will work...

by now, Malaya Irredenta and Vietnam are fully aware that their only chance of holding on to their West Philippine Sea territories is to confront as a unified force the seemingly overwhelming economic and military muscle of Beijing...

and Beijing knows this too... so expect the not-so-subtle Divide et Impera moves to continue...