It is our business

Re: “Clearing the waters”, (PostBag, July 16).

I’m a long-time American expat living in Thailand. I have no official status. The views expressed below are my own.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Yang Yang tries to tell us why non-regional countries (like the US) should not interfere in China’s activities in the South China Sea. “Mind your own business!” is a common cry from governments engaged in unsavoury activities. Such governments always invoke the principle of national sovereignty.

But that principle, left unfettered, would allow governments to imprison, brutalise, and even massacre segments of its own population with impunity. We saw it illustrated in the Holocaust, in which the Nazis massacred millions of Jews. We see it in the more recent Chinese oppression of the Tibetans and the imprisonment of the Uighurs. Such atrocities are unacceptable by civilised people. When they occur, the rest of the world should have the right to intervene.

We are all humans. Our common humanity should override narrower considerations of race, ethnicity, or ideology. The principle of ren, benevolence or humaneness, championed by the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius (Mengzi), ought to be paramount here. The worthy officials of the Chinese Embassy could profit from a perusal of the book that bears his name.

As I understand it, the objection to Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea is that its ultimate aim is to turn that sea into a Chinese lake. There, other countries will have no rights save those graciously granted by China. The artificial islands that China has been constructing constitute the chief evidence for this perception.

If China wants to convince the world that it has no imperialistic ambitions in the South China Sea, it can easily do so by dismantling and abandoning those artificial islands. Somehow I have a feeling that this won’t happen.

S TSOW