“It Will Be Bloody”
A confrontation between China and the Philippines
is brewing in the South China Sea
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is warning
if the South China Sea dispute with China escalates, “it will be bloody.”
But first, I have to tell you YouTube has been secretly unsubscribing people from
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The Chinese Communist Party claims the entire South China Sea is Chinese territory.
Over the past decade, China has built artificial islands here.
And satellite photos reveal military facilities on some of these islands.
But this is the most recent escalation: Back in March, hundreds of Chinese boats occupied
territorial waters claimed by the Philippines and other countries near Whitsun Reef.
China says the Philippines shouldn’t worry. They’re just
normal fishing boats, sheltering from storms.
Forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical.
“These boats are often huge by fishing boat standards, and they never seem to catch any fish.
They have automatic weapons aboard and reinforced hulls,
making them very dangerous at close range. With top speeds of around 18 to 22 knots,
they are also faster than 90% of the world's fishing boats.”
So the Chinese Communist Party is sending
giant, reinforced, heavily armed “fishing boats” that don’t fish.
They were “sheltering” near Whitsun Reef, even though there were no storms.
According to Carl Schuster, a former operations director at U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint
Intelligence Center, “No one ‘shelters’ their ships in a storm area weeks ahead of a storm.
If they truly are commercial craft, it is costing
hundreds if not thousands of dollars a day having them sit idly lashed together.”
The reality is these aren’t fishing boats. They’re warships
camouflaged as fishing boats. And they’re part of China’s maritime militia.
Their goal—force the Philippines to surrender their territorial claims.
We covered the surge of Chinese ships in a recent episode,
China Vs the Philippines, Dangerous Dispute in the South China Sea.
And now this week, Philippine president Duterte says a confrontation will be bloody.
The South China Sea dispute is heading towards a crisis.
The US and China have both sent aircraft carriers through the waters.
Even France sent a nuclear attack submarine.
The Chinese spotted it immediately.
And now Philipppine President Rodrigo Duterte is saying he
will send ships to assert the Philippines’ claim.
But he warned in a televised briefing this week
that “If we go there to assert our jurisdiction, it will be bloody.”
However, that might not be as strong a statement as it seems.
Duterte is saying he’s already abandoned the region to China as far as fishing rights go.
At the same televised briefing, he said
“I’m not so much interested now in fishing. I don’t think there’s enough fish to quarrel about.”
Filipino fishermen might disagree.
Duterte downplayed a confrontation over fishing rights saying in the future he would send “five
coastguard ships, and they can chase … They can play with each other, and see who’s faster.”
Well that’s a pretty cavalier attitude. Kind of different from before he was
elected when he said he’d personally jet ski to a disputed island to plant the Philippine flag.
In fact, the Philippine defence chief had to contradict Duterte. Duterte had said “nothing
will happen” if the Philippines sends its ships “because we are not in the possession of the sea.”
The Defense Chief then said, no, we
will send our naval ships to patrol the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
So what happened to Dueterte’s it will be bloody thing?
Well, that won’t happen unless China starts drilling for oil.
That would be the only time he’d be willing to act.
And don’t worry, that’s not going to happen anytime ...
Oh, shoot. They’ve started drilling in disputed waters.
But wait! It’s for purely scientific reasons. It was to “retrieve sediment core from the seabed.”
Dueterte’s stance on China has been disappointing to people who thought he’d stand up to China.
According to Reuters, “He has repeatedly said the Philippines was powerless to stop
China, and that challenging its activities could risk a war his country would lose.”
There were even rumors the Philippine defense sector
was going to withdraw their support of Dueterte. A claim they are now denying.
The problem is, China plays a big role in the Philippines' economy.
And the coronavirus has given the Chinese regime more leverage over Duterte.
“Access to vaccines has become a key concern for Duterte:
Metro Manila was locked down again last week amid the nation’s worst coronavirus
surge and the Philippines currently sources most of its supply from China’s Sinovac.”
But unless something is done to actually stop the Chinese Communist Party,
they will keep steadily expanding their reach until they control everything.
The good news is that all of the attention on the Chinese maritime militia ships
off the coast of Whitsun Reef seems to have caught the Chinese regime by surprise.
Forcing the majority of the Chinese militia vessels to depart the reef.
Last week, the Philippine Coast Guard released this video of Whitsun Reef,
showing much fewer militia ships there than back in March.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the Chinese Communist Party has given up.
After all, they’ve built these militia ships specifically to patrol this disputed territory.
They just don’t like it when the rest of the world is actually paying attention.
And now it’s time to answer a question from a member of the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,
fans who support us in our fight against the
Chinese Communist Party on the crowd funding website Patreon.
Frenky asks “I have a question I hope you can answer in the next video:
why did you guys start China Uncensored? What's the story behind it and how did the team meet?
Ah, great question Frenky. Matt Shelley and I have all been involved in journalism well
before China Uncensored. But around 2012, I felt like the threat of the
Chinese Communist Party was growing rapidly, but it seemed like most people weren’t aware.
So I thought, taking a little inspiration from the Daily Show in its heyday, if I brought some
humor and sarcasm to China news, it might get more people interested. Shelley joined me early on and
Matt joined when we all went to Hong Kong in 2014 for the Umbrella Movement.
And the rest is history as it were.
Thanks for your question Frenky.
And a big thank you to everyone who supports China Uncensored on Patreon. We could not do this show
without you. So thank you for joining us in the fight to expose the Chinese Communist Party to
the world. If you’re interested in joining, head over to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.