Province of China?

AT the 10th Biennial National Convention and 20th founding anniversary celebration of the ChineseFilipino Business Club, Inc. held at the Manila Hotel, President Rodrigo Duterte after downplaying the presence of Chinese military bases in the South China Sea, rhetorically asked, “Then why would I go there, bring my Navy, my soldiers, my police, and everything only to be slaughtered? “Referring to the moves of China to assign Chinese names to several undersea features in the Pacific belonging to the Philippines, he said, “If you want, you can make us a province, like Fujian. Province of the Philippines, Republic of China.”

Malacañang spokesman Harry Roque labelled the President’s statement as a “joke…just to emphasize that it’s ours but we’re one with China. Take it in that spirit.” Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jinhua who had reacted to the President’s remark reportedly “with a coy smile” when interviewed later, said that he “took the President’s joke as a manifestation of wanting to have closer ties between the two countries.”

If the President’s wish was to be taken seriously, the Philippines will join the 22 provinces of China – Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang. There are several other geographic units of the same hierarchical rank as provinces – autonomous regions with ethnic groups, large municipalities whose leaders report directly to Beijing and have populations ranging from 10 million to 30 million, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong, Macau, and Wolong, and the special province of Taiwan as recognized by the People’s Republic of China. (From wiki travel.org).

The populations of the provinces and other geographic units at the same rank as provinces range from 552,300 (Macau) to 104,303,132 (Guangdong) which would make the Philippines the largest province. Macau has the smallest land area of 31 square kilometres while Qinghai has the largest at 280,000 square kilometres which is close to the Philippines 300,000 square kilometers. Based on the IMF WEO data Oct. 2017,Guangdong has the highest GDP at $ 8,085.49 billion while Jiangsu had U$ 7,738.83 and Shandong had U$ 6,802.45. In 2011,Guangdong’s nominal GDP was U$819 billion, Jiangsu at U$756 billion, Shandong at U$698 billion, and Zhejiang at U$497 billion according to starmass.com. The Philippines GDP at U$ 304.9 billion will put us at the bottom part of Chinese provinces.

The problems that China may face with the Philippines as a province stems from its strong democratic institutions like the media, opposition parties, vocal critics, and the strong presence of the Catholic Church which answers to the Vatican. Just as Hong Kong is seen as a nuisance with its pro-democracy movements and the Chinese sponsored Catholic Church does not recognize the authority of the Pope, the Philippines may be viewed as too much of a burden and China may not grant President Duterte’s wish.

Given the tendencies of the Duterte administration to be antagonistic towards its perceived hostile press, to jail vocal critics and political opponents, to subvert constitutional bodies that are seen as not following the party line; being a province of China could be the solution short of declaring a revolutionary government. But will the Filipino people backed by the defenders of the Philippine Constitution, the military just idly stand by? I do not think so.

So the President’s joke is not funny. It is not just a bad joke; it could be considered an act of treason. Just as people who makes jokes about bombs in planes are subject to arrest and sanctions, Congress should consider passing legislation to make jokes affecting Philippine sovereignty a crime.

For all of us, let’s stop making jokes and focus seriously on making the Philippines a land of peace, progress, and prosperity. Wasn’t this President Duterte’s promise to the Filipino people?