Edited and translated by Liang Jun, People's Daily Online
Manila has been highlighting the situation on the South China Sea and was again acted recently like a victim to lodge a "diplomatic protest" to Beijing for Chinese naval vessels, surveillance ship and fishing boat showing up in waters off the Ren'ai Reef.
It also made representation to China about Chinese navy ship "trailed and harassed" Philippine ship passing the the Ren'ai Reef;
Furthermore, at the just-concluded Shangri-La Dialogue, the Philippines tried to convey the message that "China bullies Philippines" to win more support from major powers such as the United States.
China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, which include Ren'ai Reef and adjacent waters. On May 9, 1999, the next day of the United States-led NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy to former Yugoslavia, an old Filipino warship grounded on the Ren'ai Reef for "leaky bottom" and "last resort".
It is despicable and unscrupulous that Philippines surreptitiously encroached on the Ren’ai Reef at this time.
Fourteen year have passed since that, the warship is still "grounded" on the reef even Beijing repeatedly asked Manila to retrieve it. The Philippines has ignored the request for 14 years. If it is just like what the Philippines said that stranding is for technical reasons, so over the past years, has the Philippines taken any measures to repair the old warship?
Time proves that the Philippines lied to the world. Obviously, its real intention is trying to illegal seizure of the reef.
In addition, the Philippines had repeated the tricks to ground a retried warship in the water off the Huangyan Island and dragged away under the pressure from China.
The situation of the Huangyan Island is very clear now. Will the attempt of the Philippines to the Ren’ai Reef succeed?
It seems that the Philippines believes it can cash in on issues of territorial sovereignty through rogue means.
Even its official statements on the issue of the South China Sea are also capricious and inconsistent.
The Philippines always stirs up the situation in the South China Sea and tries to kidnap the cooperation between China and the ASEAN on its own benefits when China and the ASEAN need to cooperate in absolute sincerity.
What the Philippines did not only damaged the Sino-Philippines relations, but had negative impact on the regional cooperation; it has been criticized by many countries.
China has always advocated the settlement of disputes through dialogue and consultation for the sake of peace by no means denoted unconditional compromise.
If the Philippines keeps wrong-headed and continues to act like a rogue when dealing with the South China Sea issue, it does not expect China will always tolerate.
The author is Hua Yiwen, expert on global issues.
Read the Chinese version: 中国不会坐视菲律宾胡来”
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition; Author: Hua Yiwen
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