Chinese Imperialism

Everybody loves a beautiful love story. Isn’t it? Sad movies makes us cry. And it is okay to cry. I remember as a kid growing up in Porac, the strong rush of crystal white water descending from the hilly portion of the town and cuts into the downtown area. There was a bridge that separates the poblacion section to Cangatba. The no more than 50 meter bridge was the common area for young people, where from morning till up early evening they converged, and maybe for lack of something to do, discussed anything under the sun and what was down the river.

Ah, yes the river. It was a very much part of everyday life of the people. They swim, bathe, held picnics and washed their linens. And there was Conching who was enamoured to the river. As told, and handed down to the townspeople, through the ages, Conching was an exceptionally beautiful lass. She had long and shapely legs. They matched her candle long fingers. Her delicate shoulders and protruding buttocks when she moved immediately attract any male. She had long and flowing jet black hair that matched her beautiful face.

And it was customary for her, immediately after the break of dawn, she will go down the river and took her morning bath. And Carding, a tall young man of twenty, and handsome by any standard was one of Conching’s admirers. He was never unabashed in making an open declaration of her love for Conching. But the girl would only smile, never break her lips or nodded her head.

Until one day, the persistent lover got the wish of his life. The love of Conching. Carding was the luckiest man in the world that day. And words got into town that the two were now an item. Friends of Carding were very happy for him and invited him for a celebration and went to the only carinderia in town.

Carding and his buddies drank merrily that night and consumed every rum, gin and beer stocks of the carinderia. And when everybody was drank and others inebriated, they decided to get down the river and swim to sober up.

It was a fateful night. An accident happened. Carding drowned. And the news spread so quickly, and the whole town mourned his death. And Conching was devastated. Her happiness suddenly changed to intense melancholia. She felt that she was deceived by the river. She questioned the river why it took her Carding and drowned her heart with sorrow.

She raised her head and look towards heaven, and prayed as she never prayed that way before and begged the Lord to dry up the river, so that no more lovers will ever lose his life.

Every time I go home to my hometown of Porac, I never fail look down on the dried river, and imagine where Conching bathed herself and where Carding drowned.

I AM glad that militants are stepping up their protest actions against Chinese activities in islands and reefs in the West Philippines Sea that are rightly ours. That rally in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila last Saturday should not be a one-and-done initiative. If the Duterte administration is hesitant to put China to task for its activities, then the people should.

I understand the initial dilemma of the revolutionary left with regards to its dealing with China. The ideology of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is Leninism-Marxism-Maoism and its cadres have long been steeped in Chinese Marxist literature, especially Mao Zedong’s teachings. Activists in the past were so enamored with China six of them hijacked a plane to that country decades ago.

For the younger generation, I am referring to that incident in March 1971 when six student activists from the Mindanao State University hijacked a Philippine Airlines (PAL) plane that was bound from Cebu to Davao and then ordered the pilot to head for Beijing. The six— Glen Rosauro, Edgardo Tigulo, Domingo Baskiñas, Edgardo Mausisa, Daniel Lobitaña and Fructuoso Chua had wanted to learn from the Chinese the theory and science of revolution. They ended up experiencing Chinese efforts at socialist construction as a declared socialist country.

Fast forward more than four decades and we are seeing a China far different from what the great Mao Zedong had conceived. Marxists do not consider it as a socialist country but a capitalist one. Some of them even concede that China has become an imperialist power run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In this sense, it has become no different from the older imperialist power, the United States of America.

Filipino activists have long focused on US imperialism, convinced that the country is its neo-colony, thus the seemingly unchanging linkage of US imperialism with whoever is president of the country— US-Marcos dictatorship, US-Aquino (Cory) regime, USRamos regime, US-Estrada regime, USArroyo regime, US-Aquino (Noynoy) regime and finally, US-Duterte regime.

But while China may not have achieved a level of control over the Philippines’ socio-economic and political life like that of the US, it’s threat to Philippine sovereignty over our territories in the West Philippine Sea is more apparent to majority of Filipinos than whatever US imperialism is doing to the country. Thus the activists dilemma on how to treat China’s actions without supporting the cause of US imperialism here.

For them, US imperialism remains to be the main enemy. But they could not also downplay the Chinese’s own imperialist designs in the country, which the Duterte administration seems to be encouraging (the loans China is offering could give it a modicum of influence on our governance and economy).

The revolutionary left actually became an accomplice of the Duterte government in that regard when the peace talks were on, thus the seeming reluctance to attack China. With the tactical alliance with the Duterte government now out, we expect the activists to be more critical of Chinese “imperialism.”