China has a history of exploiting smaller countries.
Yet the Philippines is signing more deals with China.
It’s called durian diplomacy.
And it stinks
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
China has a proven track record of weaponizing trade to coerce and influence other countries.
This includes using fruit.
Yup. Weaponized fruit. And not the way you do
with tomatoes when someone is bombing at an open mic night.
The Philippines is no exception.
Back in 2012, at the height of South China Sea maritime disputes,
China went bananas—and banned bananas, mangoes, and other fruit imports from the Philippines.
Tons of fruit rotted in Chinese ports.
So “Let it rot” isn’t just a modern protest movement. It was the Chinese
Communist Party’s official foreign policy.
The bans were lifted in 2016—after then-Filipino
President Rodrigo Duterte took office and tried to make friends with China.
Which just goes to show that China’s bans were always about politics.
You would think that the Philippines would learn
from this experience not to trust the Chinese regime.
That’s especially the case, since China hasn’t even followed through with a lot
of its earlier promises to invest in the Philippines.
But you’d be wrong. The Philippines hasn’t learned.
Considering how often this happens in countries around the world,
the tagline for China Uncensored might as well be,
“You’d think they would have learned from that experience, but you’d be wrong.”
China’s trade promises with Southeast Asia have sometimes been called “durian diplomacy”. China
uses it to gain more economic influence in return for importing durians and other goods.
And even with a new president, the Philippines is still falling for it.
Durians are actually a good metaphor for Chinese diplomacy. At first they
look interesting. But once you get inside, they stink up everything.
Last week, Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos,
Jr. flew to Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
During his 3-day visit, Marcos signed 14 deals.
They included agreements on agriculture,
fishing, tourism—plus one about exporting fresh durian to China.
And by the way, if the deal you’re wondering about most is tourism—you know, because China is in the
middle of a massive Covid outbreak—well to that, China says… “Shut up, nerd.”
Glad to see that China *now* cares about encouraging international travel
right when it’s in the midst of a health crisis.
Anyway, the Philippines and China also signed deals for infrastructure and development,
including a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative,
China’s global infrastructure project.
It’s also reported that Xi told Marcos that China is ready to restart oil
exploration talks that were abandoned by the previous Filipino president.
Both countries also agreed on a mechanism to
communicate about maritime issues—like potential South China Sea disputes.
I’ll have more on that later.
China claims that the recent visit will usher in a “new golden era” in Chinese-Philippine relations.
I’ve heard that one before.
And my favorite Chinese state-run media The Global Times says, “The so-called tension
between China and the Philippines, created by Western public opinion not long ago,
collapsed on itself. The hype without a factual basis eventually failed to take root.”
Yeah, totally not the case that the Philippines has legitimate concerns for its own security.
The Philippines wants to make deals with China to prop up its economy,
and thinks it can keep security concerns separate.
But guess what? It’s a trap. I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
Filipino President Marcos Jr. wants to encourage cooperation and trade with China.
Which is always a great idea with no consequences. Kind of like
Biting a cactus. I see only positives here.
On top of meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Marcos also met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Marcos said, “It is very important that these partnerships continue to be strong, continue to
be encouraged. And I think that will be the way forward to the mutual benefit of our countries.”
Ah yes, “mutual benefit,” the lullaby government officials sing to themselves
when they talk about making deals with an authoritarian regime like China.
At first glance, the investment pledges Marcos got look like they’ll help the Philippines a lot.
But keep in mind that these are only pledges. And “Some of the 14 signed agreements are either
revivals or continuation of unfulfilled accords from previous Philippine administrations.”
But I’m sure China will keep all its pledges
now when it hasn’t before. Just like I’m also sure that
Lucy won’t move the football. Go ahead and kick it, Charlie Brown. You can trust her.
But according to Marcos, these pledges are “backed
up already by concrete actions” that will generate thousands of jobs for Filipinos.
And the concrete on those actions is probably as solid as the concrete on China’s infrastructure.
But even if China makes good on its pledges this time,
it would just make the Philippines more reliant on China. That makes the
Philippines more vulnerable to economic coercion, especially when it comes to the South China Sea.
Despite an international tribunal rejecting Beijing’s claims on the South China Sea,
China continues to harass Filipino fishermen there.
The Philippines is literally doing business with the regime that’s harassing them. This
is like offering your bully your lunch money before they even ask.
For example, back in November last year, the Philippine Navy said China’s coast guard
forcibly seized suspected rocket debris that was being towed by a Filipino boat.
Well, thanks to recent talks,
China and the Philippines agreed to set up an alert system for rocket launches.
They also set up direct communication channels to prevent escalation in the South China Sea.
And according to the Chinese government,
they “reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace and stability in the region.”
Yeah, you can totally trust China to keep its word on promoting peace and stability there.
China cares about peace and stability about as much as
Def Leppard’s drummer cares about matching gloves.
Marcos has also said that, “Xi had promised a compromise and solution
that could allow Philippine fishermen to operate in their historic fishing grounds.”
Right.
Well, a lot of fishermen think this compromise won’t actually solve their woes.
It’s like that old saying, “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Tell a man you’ll let
him fish in his own waters if his government plays nice...and that won’t solve his woes.”
The compromise actually sounds pretty condescending.
After all, how is it that China “allows” Filipino fishermen in
waters that aren’t China’s in the first place?
And that’s the problem. As long as the Philippines keeps looking to China for trade and peace,
China will keep looking down on the Philippines and use promises to coerce it. Promises they
already haven’t kept in the past. You’d think they would have learned from that experience…
but you’d be wrong.
And now, as a thank you to all my wonderful fans who support China Uncensored through
the crowdfunding website Patreon or the exclusive social media platform Locals,
I’ll answer one of your questions:
Matt Wilson asks on Patreon: “I recently watched a news program and they had a
segment about China's COVID status. However, their information was out of date. I provided
a bit of information in their youtube comments section as well as a link to
your show but the comment vanished nearly instantly. Have you come across this at all?”
Good question, Matt.
YouTube gives channel owners the option to manually delete any comments they want. But
that may not be what happened in your case. By default, YouTube blocks any comment its
algorithm deems “potentially inappropriate”. That comment won’t show up unless the channel
manager goes in and manually enables that comment—which basically no one ever does.
So it’s probably less about the news site intentionally censoring you,
and more about YouTube’s massive AI deciding what’s appropriate and what’s not.
I guess second-guessing Covid data is inappropriate—so stop questioning authority!
Thanks for your question, Matt.
And thank you to everyone else who supports China Uncensored through Patreon. Join us
at Patreon and contribute a dollar or more per episode. You’ll get a lot of cool perks,
including me answering your questions on the show. Check out Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.