Chinese takeout

“MINE, mine, mine, mine, mine!”

The Chinese president for life jabbed his stubby finger at several dots on a map rolled out in front of him. His finger seemed awfully near the island province of Palawan.

“But this is … ganun,” the Philippine president managed.

The Chinese president looked puzzled, then smiled, shaking his head. Pointing to a dashed line on the map that no other country in the world acknowledged, he then repeated himself. “Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine!” The Filipino leader, who once bragged he would jet ski to those tiny dots on the map to plant the Philippine flag, was silent.

In his pocket was a document from an international tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) that found that “China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone by a) interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration; b) constructing artificial islands; and c) failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone.” Legal experts had explained to him that both the Philippines and China were signatories to Unclos, and that while China had the right not to participate in the arbitration process (it did not), it had an obligation to accept the final and binding ruling (it also did not). He did not bring this up, however. “Let’s come to an agreement,” he said instead.

He proposed that China allow Filipino fishermen to fish in areas that the international tribunal had said were within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, that China was blocking illegally.

He also acknowledged that China had a fleet of vessels blocking a Philippine outpost in the Ayungin Shoal in the South China Sea, but asked that it be allowed to send food and water to the soldiers stationed on a grounded warship there, as long as they did not also send construction materials to improve living conditions there. The shoal, which is 216 kilometers from the Philippines and 2,888 kilometers from China, is also part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. It wasn’t just Manila that said that; Unclos and the rest of the world did.

But the Philippine leader thought he had struck a good deal that would let his country coexist with its giant neighbor to the north. What he had really done was to bargain away his country’s right to exercise its sovereign rights. He had agreed to the status quo — which meant letting China run roughshod over the Philippines in its own backyard.

None of this was spelled out in any document, however. There would be no memorandum of agreement, much less a treaty. The two leaders simply shook hands on the “gentleman’s agreement,” although it is debatable whether either of them qualified as gentlemen.

Returning from the “negotiations,” the Philippine leader talked to his spokesman.

“Harry, that man drives a hard bargain,” he said. Realizing what he had bargained away, he added: “It will be a hard thing to sell the gentleman’s agreement to the public.”

“Don’t worry,” Harry said. “We have a coterie of fact-deniers and apologists who can argue our side very well. We can even blame everything on the Americans. Take it from me. If you can be a human rights lawyer one moment, then defend your bloody war on drugs the next, you know a thing or two about rationalizing.”

That seemed to satisfy the president.

“Let’s eat. All that negotiating has made me hungry,” he said.

Harry handed him a Chinese takeout menu, and the president smiled.

Jabbing his finger at the dim sum items on the menu, he said: “Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine!”