I have two complaints. One is about the Chinese government, which, as usual, is wagging its finger at any who dare take defensive measures against its aggression in the South China Sea.
China is pouting about what it calls “maritime provocations” because the United States and the Philippines are getting together to conduct an annual military exercise in the region (“China warns against US-Philippine joint military exercise,” Radio Free Asia, April 18, 2024).
China has slammed an annual Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise scheduled to begin next week, warning against “maritime provocations.”
More than 16,000 Filipino and U.S. troops are expected to take part in the joint exercise Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder), now in its 39th year but which for the first time will be conducted outside the Philippines’ territorial waters….
The U.S. Embassy in Manila calls this year’s exercise from April 22 to May 18 “our most expansive Balikatan yet.”
It said in a statement that the drills will include territorial defense and targeting simulated enemy forces in Luzon and Palawan, the areas facing Taiwan and the South China Sea….
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a press briefing in Beijing that Manila “needs to be fully aware that when countries outside the region are brought into the South China Sea to flex muscles and stoke confrontation, tensions could get worse and the region will only become less stable.”
China, don’t initiate aggression if you don’t want anybody to respond to your aggression or prepare to defend against your future aggression. If you’re a fan of stability, don’t destabilize.
My much lesser complaint is about a detail of Radio Free Europe’s mostly fine report on the impending military exercise and China’s inane protest.
Knowing for sure
According to the author, RFA Staff, the Philippines and China “have been confronting each other” over islands in the South China Sea that lie within the jurisdiction of the Philippines. (China has a policy of making trouble in the jurisdictions of nearby and faraway countries.) Then Mr. Staff says: “The Philippine coast guard said its ships have been harassed and fired at with water cannons by the Chinese coast guard.”
It’s true. The Philippine coast guard does say this type of thing, that it’s being harassed by the Chinese coast guard and getting hosed by the Chinese coast guard’s water cannons.
But why not directly report that “the ships of the Philippine coast guard have been harassed and water-cannoned by the Chinese coast guard”? Are we uncertain about whether this is the case (despite video of the assaults)? Is this only something that the Philippine coast guard says, not something that we independently know for sure?
RFA Staff’s indirectness here may be merely incidental and not a manifestation of any particular motive. But it is also a commonplace in reports about China’s various misdeeds and evildoing. It is often a form of excessive tact, of bending over backward to give “both sides of the story,” when the “side” of China’s spokesmen typically consists of lies, lies obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. But if the cat is on the mat, and we know that it is, we can directly report this. We don’t have to cite the attestations of knowledgeable cat observers.
China’s formal admission is unnecessary in order to know the fact of the matter, but China does admit to using water cannons against Philippine ships (in order “to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective”—warnings against Philippine ships moving around in waters right next to the Philippines).
Caught in the act
A reader a little confounded by RFA’s initial reference to China’s water-cannoning may be set straight by a photo caption that is part of the same article: “Chinese Coast Guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024.” It would have been hard for the caption writer to hedge. For the photo shows a Chinese vessel firing its water cannon on a Philippine vessel, not a Philippine spokesman making a claim that this is what the photo shows.
Also see:
ABS-CBN News: Video: “Chinese Coast Guard fires water cannon at PH supply vessel in South China Sea”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Japan to the Rescue in the South China Sea?”
“Tokyo has started a multilateral initiative to provide ‘long-term support to maritime authorities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam’ to counter China’s belligerence in the South China Sea.”
