Opinion: Beijing’s political propaganda stinks

Opinion piece in the "Hail to the chair" column by Victor Avilla posted to the Manila Standard Today (Jul 25): Opinion: Beijing’s political propaganda stinks
 

After seizing several reefs and creating numerous artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea, Communist China has the gall to proclaim to the world that it is the victim in the recent arbitration case Manila filed against Beijing before the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands.   That statement is typical communist rhetoric which Beijing’s political propaganda bureau regularly publishes and broadcasts in its state-controlled media, and which their brainwashed citizens have come to expect on a regular basis.

How can Beijing honestly claim that it is the victim when its operations in the once-open South China Sea have virtually converted the entire area into a Red Chinese lake?   Is Beijing suggesting that its big naval armada in the West Philippine Sea, composed of battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines, is no match for the few, aging frigates of the Philippine Navy?   If Beijing is really the victim, then why is it unwilling to present its case before the international arbitration court?

Truth to tell, Communist China simply assumed that it can muscle its way in the West Philippine Sea through its intimidating use of superior military and naval might against the manifestly weaker Philippine defense forces.   It did not expect Manila to take legal action on the matter and in the process invite world attention to Beijing’s bullying.

Communist China knows that the Philippines is ill-equipped to defend its maritime territory in the West Philippine Sea.   For this reason alone, Beijing built numerous artificial islands kilometers inside waters which, under the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, constitute the Philippine exclusive economic zone.   In addition, Red Chinese ships drive away Filipino fishing vessels from Philippine waters.     

Tibet, which shares a border with Communist China, is a country of peaceful people with hardly an army to defend it.   The Red Chinese army invaded it and it remains occupied by Chinese troops today. 

Communist China officially considers Taiwan its renegade province, but Beijing is aware that Taiwan has a naval arsenal that can oppose Red Chinese reclamation operations.   For this reason alone, Beijing has not made reclamation operations near Taiwan.

Although Communist China has a border dispute with India, Beijing has learned from a past war with New Delhi that the Indians can fight back.   Beijing has stopped confronting the Indians.

A bully is one who picks a fight with an obviously weaker adversary, and avoids confronting anyone who can fight back.   From the examples cited above, Communist China satisfies the definition of a bully.   

For the past several years, the diplomatic posture of Communist China in the Philippines is all about deceit, duplicity, and equivocal statements. 

A perfect example of Beijing’s loathsome posture is “Window to China” – its paid newspaper advertisement published on a regular basis in another newspaper.   The advertisement consists of a whole page of self-serving propaganda, written in English and printed in color, complete with photographs of smiling officials of the communist government in Beijing.   Each publication of “Window to China” carries statements about Beijing’s alleged desire for peace in Asia, and Beijing’s purported wish to help other nations through vague “development projects.”   The entire material is punctuated with motherhood words and phrases like peace, progress, economic stability, regional development, regional understanding, international cooperation, and friendship between nations.

Like any typical communist propaganda, there are no negative stories in the paid advertisement.   There is no mention of Beijing’s invasion and illegal occupation of Tibet; the role of Communist China in shaping North Korea into the saber-rattling, troublemaker state it is today; the 30 million rural Chinese who died of hunger as a result of Mao Zedong’s compulsory collective farming experiment in the 1960s and the 1970s; its seizure of the Paracel Islands claimed by Vietnam; the Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy civilians in the 1990s; the recent violent dispersal of pro-democracy assemblies in Hong Kong (despite Beijing’s promise of democratic reforms there); the lethal, hazardous, and substandard food and non-food products exported by Communist China to developing countries; and the Red Chinese warships currently stationed in the West Philippine Sea.   

To give a semblance of legitimacy to the advertisement, illustrations of ancient Chinese philosophers, some Chinese calligraphy, and some Chinese proverbs embellish the lower section of the advertisement.   The big irony is that at the height of Mao’s dictatorship, the communist government in Beijing denounced ancient Chinese culture as decadent, and an obstacle to the great leap forward falsely promised by Mao.

The despicable diplomatic posture of Communist China in the Philippines is also visible in the actuations of Beijing before Manila sought relief from the international arbitration court.   When Beijing was seizing islet after islet in the West Philippine Sea, Manila sought to resolve the problem through multi-lateral talks with other concerned countries in South East Asia.   In response, Beijing insisted on bilateral talks.   After Manila took up Beijing on the offer, the Red Chinese leadership imposed so many conditions which practically required Manila to acknowledge Beijing’s maritime claims, and which ultimately made any bilateral negotiation meaningless.   Meanwhile, Beijing continued with its incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

Beijing’s posture continued after Manila brought suit.   Its communist government refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the international tribunal on the Law of the Sea, despite the fact that Communist China is a signatory to the pertinent convention.   Beijing also falsely accused Manila of refusing to consider bilateral negotiations before seeking judicial relief. 

The only plausible explanation for the abominable diplomatic posture Communist China has displayed and continues to display in its dispute with Manila is that the communist government in Beijing is so accustomed to disseminating propaganda without comment or opposition from its own people.   This regimentation has been around for so long that Beijing’s communist masters believe that their formula for effective political propaganda which has worked on their people will also work on others.   Unfortunately for Beijing, its government forgot that in the Philippines, a free and critical press exists and functions.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/07/25/beijing-s-political-propaganda-stinks/