The China connection

CHINAis not winning any friends these days. Its stated grumpiness about a recent cohesive US-Japan dialogue smacks of sour grapes. The backchat by the Chinese authorities given to Philippine government officials over representations relating to almost 200 Chinese vessels moored at Julian Felipe Reef is not friendly nor appropriate. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is supporting the Philippines. He says: “we will always stand by our allies and stand up for rules-based international order”. Well said. *** On the other side of the coin, Third telecommunications I wonder if the US authorities player, Dito Telecommunity Corp should revisit the charges against has recently passed a technical audit Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wangzhou. which checked its capacity to deliver She was arrested by Canadian on its first-year commitments. Dito police at Vancouver airport in is majority- owned by the group December 2018. The US wants to of Dennis Uy and 40 percent extradite her although the Canadian owned by state- owned China authorities have not yet approved Telecommunications. the US request. This request which The Philippine Competition came from the administration Commission ( PCC) i s closely of former US president Trump monitoring Dito’s commercial may not have the same support rollout to ensure that the company from the Biden administration, is complying with its requirements. particularly when the charges I am glad t he competitive against Meng resulted indirectly environment is intensifying. from the 2015 agreement between For a long time, PLDT held a US, the European Union, and Iran monopoly and constantly behaved under the Obama administration. with arrogance and disdain towards Trump called this agreement ‘ a its captive audience. I suffered from lousy deal’. a chronic billing problem many years

If the US charges against Meng ago. For ages, PLDT never replied to were dropped, it may help to slow my courteous (at least I think so) the downward slide in the Sino-US observations where I clearly showed relationship. how I was being overcharged.

Like many, therefore, I was delighted when Globe provided much- needed competition and quickly and unsurprisingly established a significant market share. We do not live in a perfect world, however. Globe keeps making arrangements to attend to technical issues in my home but does not adhere to these arrangements. Nor do they let me know they are not coming. Irritating.

The last two occasions were on 25th of March and 8th April.

No shows, particularly when we arrange for family members who speak fluent telecoms to be present, are upsetting.

We wish every success to Dito!/