Billy Andal sees what is happening: China is bullying the Philippines (among other countries) and lying about its bullying. His response is to expose the lie and to ask a rhetorical question (“China, what law is it?,” Daily Tribune (Manila), February 1, 2025).
With brute force and superior military might, Imperial China overwhelms our weak and minuscule maritime assets, making us unable to stop its illegal acts. They loiter, drive us away, seize maritime features, and build military bases in our exclusive economic zone, claiming them as their own. Despite many so-called talks and arrangements between the parties in conflict to reduce tension and avoid unnecessary or untoward incidents, Emperor Xi merely continues to blabber and does the reverse. Simply put, they are double-talking.
At every opportunity, in any incident, Imperial China argues that its illegal and bullying activities comply with international law…. What international law?
Andal wants to know the “article, section, or paragraph” of the alleged international law that the Chinese propagandists and “Emperor Xi” are relying on to justify their illegal acts in the West Philippine Sea.
The demand is rhetorical. Andal knows that China’s misty historical claims and its references to “a nonexistent or unidentified international law and the imaginary nine-dash line are mere cosmetics to disguise their real aggressive and expansive actions….”
The bottom line: “They think no one can stop them….”
That’s it and that’s all. The “law” that China is implicitly relying on, the one more determinative of policy than anything in its own or anyone else’s books of law, is merely its assumption that might makes right, that the party-state is entitled to whatever it can get away, regardless of any other country’s natural or codified rights or boundaries. The insight is not new and not hard to come up with. But is not accepted as widely as it should be or being acted upon as consistently as it should be.
The CCP can be stopped, but not by negotiation or by pointing to any international agreement.
