00:00 August 5, 2023, the China Coast Guard waterbombed the Philippine Coast Guard
00:07 while the Philippines was conducting a resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal.
00:12 In another waterbombing incident on March 23, 2024,
00:18 the situation became more dangerous.
00:28 Just after this,
00:30 the ships of the PCG and BFAR were damaged
00:34 by the Chinese water cannon in Bajo de Masinlo.
00:38 How did the Philippines and China end up in this situation?
00:44 Here's what you need to know.
00:47 For decades, China has been trying to take over the entire South China Sea.
00:57 In 1947, China released their 9-dash line map
01:03 that covers the entire South China Sea.
01:06 This map has long been neglected and has no legal basis
01:12 according to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Dahae.
01:16 This means that the West Philippine Sea
01:20 is a part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
01:24 According to Professor Renato de Castro,
01:27 an expert in international studies,
01:30 one of China's goals is to take over the so-called First Island Chain.
01:36 The first basis is resources.
01:39 The second is geo-strategic.
01:43 But China's goal is to control the ocean
01:49 within the First Island Chain.
01:52 The First Island Chain is located in the northernmost part of Japan,
01:55 in the middle of Taiwan, and in the lower part of the Philippines and Indonesia.
01:59 They want to control the ocean there.
02:02 Not only the South China Sea, but also the East China Sea.
02:07 By controlling the South and East China Seas,
02:12 they will have access to natural resources and oil exploration.
02:18 This is one of China's grand strategies.
02:22 They call it their grand strategy.
02:25 President Xi Jinping announced it in 2012.
02:28 They call it the Chinese Dream.
02:32 The Chinese think that before the arrival of the Europeans,
02:38 the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French,
02:42 they are the ones who call it the Middle Kingdom.
02:46 They were exiled when the colonial powers came in.
02:50 They experienced a century of shame and humiliation.
03:00 Now they are strong, powerful, and rich.
03:03 It's time to return to their natural view
03:08 that China is the most powerful country in Asia.
03:14 In 1979, China also started to strengthen their defense.
03:20 Let's go back to history.
03:22 In 1978, during the time of Deng Xiaoping,
03:28 they said that China is a communist country.
03:31 They have a large population, but they are not strong and rich.
03:35 In 1979, they embarked on a four modernization.
03:40 They focused on economy, technology, education, and military capabilities.
03:47 For so many decades, the Chinese police hid their strength.
03:53 When China's economy grew,
03:56 by 2009 or 2010,
03:59 they surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in the world.
04:03 They said that we are rich, we should be powerful, especially in military.
04:08 China increased its defense budget.
04:12 In 1995, China's presence in the Philippines was first seen.
04:18 We were surprised when our fishermen discovered that
04:24 they were suddenly detained by the Chinese in the Mischief Reef.
04:29 They were surprised that the Chinese navy was already occupied
04:33 and the Chinese built wooden shelters.
04:37 The Chinese said that the Chinese built wooden shelters
04:42 just for the purpose of our fishermen.
04:47 But slowly, they strengthened their presence.
04:51 Now, the Mischief Reef is a major Chinese naval and air base.
04:58 They also built artificial islands and military facilities.
05:08 Despite the presence of the Mischief Reef in the Philippines in 1995,
05:14 which was then declared illegal by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS,
05:21 the relationship between China and the Philippines entered the Golden Age of the Philippines in 2005.
05:28 During President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's time,
05:32 the first Golden Age of the Philippine-China relation was established in 2005.
05:39 It continued and there were many controversial deals.
05:44 This is what we call the North Luzon Rail Project.
05:47 There was the CTE, the National Broadband Network,
05:51 and the controversial unconstitutional Joint Maritime and Seismic Undertaking.
05:57 During the time of your former president, Rodrigo Duterte,
06:01 your policy was appeasement.
06:03 In other words, we accommodate or entertain China.
06:06 In due fairness to him, he saw the threat of the Chinese expansion.
06:11 But if we appease China, we can moderate their behavior.
06:18 That did not happen.
06:19 In 2012, there was a standoff between China and the Philippines in Scarborough Shoal
06:26 because of China's establishment in the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone.
06:34 The Philippines filed a complaint in an unclosed case and won the case in 2016.
06:44 Joseph Morong is an expert in the area.
06:48 He has been covering the Scarborough Shoal in Kalayaan Island, a part of the West Philippine Seas.
06:55 I started covering last year because they needed some confirmation in a video of water canning.
07:03 We got it, so I got involved in the story.
07:07 What the government is doing, what they call a transparency initiative,
07:13 is a part of showing what is happening in the conflict between China and the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea.
07:22 Now, people are seeing the first water bombs in our forces.
07:30 This is a chance to show the interplay of forces between China and the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea
07:38 inside our Exclusive Economic Zone.
07:40 In instances of water canning, you will not be able to deny yourself why they are doing it to us.
07:47 You will be proud of our uniformed personnel.
07:49 You will not see them in panic. You will not see them in fear.
07:55 This is our job and what we need to do.
07:58 Sometimes, we are on the bridge and the Chinese ship will come close.
08:04 We need to be calm even if it is very close.
08:06 They know what to do in those kinds of instances.
08:09 The 277 residents of Kalayaan Island are counting on the rich sea.
08:16 Life on the island is not easy.
08:19 First of all, your enemy is nature.
08:22 Because when it rains, the waves are high, you have no catch.
08:26 You are in danger because you cannot buy sardines.
08:29 When that happens, you really get hungry.
08:32 Aside from nature, China is there.
08:35 They are limiting where you can fish.
08:39 The incidents of water bombing and harassment in the West Philippine Sea may happen again.
08:46 That is why the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept or the Alliance with Other Countries
08:53 and the trilateral summit between the United States, Japan and the Philippines in April
09:01 could be a big help to the Philippines.
09:04 When we come to the United States, our alliance is based on the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty,
09:11 our security partnership in Japan, based on our June 2015 declaration and of course Australia.
09:18 We have countries that would provide assistance
09:22 but at the end of the day, we can only rely on ourselves.
09:27 Alliance and security partnerships are convenient
09:31 but at the end of the day, we have to rely on ourselves as a nation, as a unified nation
09:36 and of course on a credible modern armed forces of the Philippines.
09:41 That is one aspect of the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept.
09:47 We will strengthen our armed forces, especially the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard.
09:54 [Music]
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