Binomba ng tubig ng China Coast Guard ang Philippine Coast Guard habang nagsasagawa ito ng resupply mission sa Ayungin Shoal noong August 5, 2023.
Sa isa pang water bombing incident noong March 23, 2024, mas naging delikado na ang sitwasyon.
Ang mga barko naman ng Philippine Coast Guard at Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, napinsala ng mga water cannon ng China sa Bajo de Masinloc noong April 30, 2024.
Paano nga ba umabot sa puntong ito ang China at Pilipinas? Here’s what you #NeedToKnow.
Sa isa pang water bombing incident noong March 23, 2024, mas naging delikado na ang sitwasyon.
Ang mga barko naman ng Philippine Coast Guard at Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, napinsala ng mga water cannon ng China sa Bajo de Masinloc noong April 30, 2024.
Paano nga ba umabot sa puntong ito ang China at Pilipinas? Here’s what you #NeedToKnow.
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NewsTranscript
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]