Diplomacy is when what you see is not what you get

not in Wang Yi’s itinerary.

In other words, the Wang Yi visit indicated that in the continuing contention between US and China over the South China Sea, the Biden presidency does not offer any qualitative change as far as the Philippines is concerned — filipinos will continue being fodder for US cannon to be fired against China at the opportune moment.

The Chinese foreign minister has donated some half a million doses of Sinovac, delivering on China’s commitment to assist the Philippines in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. (It is said that in Southeast Asia, China has concluded deals for the supply of the vaccine to Myanmar and Indonesia already.) Look at this as the collateral benefits of China’s fraternity and benevolence toward the Philippines.

The truly strategic gain should be China to push for the Philippine need to sever its military ties with the US by which alone thereby to spare the country from US military entanglements in the world. But sad to say, China won’t do it. It is quite strict in implementing its policy of non-interference in another country’s internal affairs.

Come to think of it though. The Philippine fight against Covid-19 is strictly an internal Philippine affair. So, could not Wang Yi’s donation of half a million doses of Sinovac be deemed Chinese interference in Philippine internal affairs?

Surely, that donation is done all in the spirit of humanitarianism, but in the competition among big pharma to corner the pandemic vaccine supply in the Philippines, what is taking place is a war. In fact, my friend journalist consultant has already coined an appropriate phrase that accurately describes the conflict: vaccine imperialism.

The first indication to me that the Covid-19 pandemic is a war was this report, early last year, of a Twitter post coming from the Chinese foreign ministry: “On Thursday (March 12), Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of foreign Affairs, took to Twitter, a social platform banned in China, to ask when did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owes us an explanation!”

Though the reported statement did not come from Wang Yi, it must have been published with his imprimatur, it being acknowledged as a position of the Chinese foreign ministry. As early as its onset, the global spread of coronavirus has been an arena of worldwide confrontation between America and China as much over its source (Trump labeled it the “Chinese” virus; the Chinese foreign ministry suggested it came from a virus leak at the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAmriid laboratory in fort Detrick, Maryland) as rivalry over commerce for its cure (Pfizer and Moderna vs Sinovac).

If then China finds it justified to intervene in this one more kind of imperialist war, why could it not intervene — in fact also as a humanitarian act — to free filipinos from the truly more savage, inhuman captivity by America through its onerous military arrangements with the Philippines!