Fire and Water

Earlier this week, Monkton noted the recent Chinese attack on a Philippine vessel that involved ramming the vessel and continuously pounding it with a water cannon. The temperature has gone up so much that the Philippine ambassador the U.S. called the situation a “flashpoint”:

The South China Sea “is the flashpoint, not Taiwan,” Jose Manuel Romualdez told Nikkei Asia in an interview on Thursday. “[If] anything happens in our area, it’s like the beginning of another war, world war.”

Ryo Nakamura. “Flashpoint is South China Sea, not Taiwan, says Philippine envoy to U.S.”. Nikkei Asia. December 13, 2023.

It appears that this escalation of tactics has so upset the Philippine government that they may “PNG” the Chinese ambassador. “PNG” means assigning “persona non grata” status. The US State Dept defines the term as such:

A Latin phrase meaning “unwelcome person.” As a legal term, it refers to the practice of a state prohibiting a diplomat from entering the country as a diplomat, or censuring a diplomat already resident in the country for conduct unbecoming of the status of a diplomat.

“Persona non grata”. Encyclopedia Entries. diplomacy.state.gov.

Karen Davila interviewed Juan Miguel Zubiri, the Philippines senate president, about the idea of throwing out the Chinese ambassador. Davila notes that this “has never been done before”.

Zubiri says that the Philippines needs to “step up the protest with the Chinese government” after the most recent attack, while warning against stepping up “aggression that causes the endangerment of lives.”

Zuburi indicates the continuing support for Philippine fishermen and the ongoing (and increasing) re-supply missions to the Sierra Madre to demonstrate their commitment to stand firm.

Zubiri gives Marcos credit for standing strong. He described Marcos’s meeting with Xi at the recent APEC conference. Marcos is said to have told Xi, “Look, we wouldn’t be having this problem if you minded your own business and we minded ours. We are just doing our re-supply mission… and if you want to watch over our coast guard ships and our fishing ships, fine. But don’t do any aggressive maneuvers.”

Zubiri says that they don’t want a war with China, but maybe it is inevitable. “Sometimes we don’t have a choice. What are we going to do? Just lie down and play dead? And just say, ‘Okay, just take over this whole West Philippine Sea.”? Because we love our country, we’re not going to give up that territory…. We don’t want war, but we should be prepared for it.”