China’s continuous brazen military actions to expand its territory are supplemented by propaganda that Bangladesh’s RTV News calls “increasingly ridiculous.”
But is it accurate to say that the ridiculousness is increasing if the baseline is Chinese Dictator Xi Jingping’s statement to US President Joe Biden in 2021, a statement noted by RTV?
“Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation,” Xi then explained. “Since the founding of the people’s republic, China has never started a single war or conflict and has never taken one inch of land from other countries.” Well, never just one inch at a time.
RTV says (February 16, 2024):
When it comes to China’s outrageous maritime territorial claims and bullying at sea, state media and government channels are spouting increasingly ridiculous messages. For example, the Global Times tabloid tweeted on 27 January [2024] that the China Coast Guard (CCG) had expelled “Japanese vessels near the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, which are an inherent part of China’s territory, and CCG vessels carry out maritime rights protection and law enforcement activities in China’s jurisdictional waters in accordance with the law. We urge the Japanese side to immediately cease all illegal activities in this area and ensure that similar incidents do not occur again.”
Such statements are figments of China’s imagination. Beijing has also succeeded in antagonizing the Philippines, causing Manila to become more strenuous in its criticism of blatant Chinese interference. After Manila stated it would modernize military facilities in its northernmost province of Batanes, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin warned the Philippines to “tread carefully and don’t play with fire”.
Self-defense being, supposedly, intrinsically incendiary.
Wang was responding to a reporter’s question at his press conference of February 8, 2024, an event memorialized at the Ministry’s website:
Reuters: The Philippine Defense Secretary has ordered the military to boost the number of troops and structures in the remote Batanes islands less than 200 kilometers from Taiwan to fortify Manila’s territorial defense capabilities. What’s China’s comment?
Wang Wenbin: China and the Philippines are neighbors across the sea. Friendly exchanges predominate in the history of our bilateral relations. A close neighbor can be more helpful than a distant relative. Neighbors should get along with each other based on the principle of good-neighborliness, friendship, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and noninterference in each others’ internal affairs.
I want to stress again that the Taiwan question is at the heart of China’s core interests and is a red line and bottom line that must not be crossed. Relevant parties in the Philippines need to understand it clearly, tread carefully and don’t play with fire on this question to avoid being manipulated and eventually hurt.
The Philippines needs to back off to avoid being hurt by whom, exactly? The allegedly helpful, neighborly, friendly, respectful Chinese government?
At the same Q&A, Wang said that China “attaches great importance to the protection and advancement of human rights, stands firmly against torture, and has achieved remarkable progress in human rights protection in the judicial area.”
That China “plays an increasingly important role in upholding international fairness and justice.”
That China “will continue to deepen friendly cooperation and exchanges with all countries, and work with the international community and bear in mind the future and the well-being of humanity to build a community with a shared future for mankind and a better world.”
I guess the ridiculousness of Chinese Communist Party propaganda does sometimes increase. It goes up and down. The exact degree depends on how good at being ridiculous a particular CCP propagandist may be and how hard he works at it. Wang Wenbin puts in the effort.
