Philippine president angers China by evoking ghost of Nazi ambition
PhiliPPinE president Benigno Aquino has been branded a “disgrace” for comments he has made warning the world not to appease China as Europe once appeased nazi Germany.
Mr Aquino told The new York Times the world must learn a lesson from 1938, when the UK and France allowed Adolf hitler’s regime its claim to Czech territory, leading China’s state news agency yesterday to condemn his remarks.
China claims parts of the South China Sea which the Philippines disputes. The row is the latest display of tension between China and its neighbours.
Mr Aquino called on the world to do more to support his country against China’s claims.
“At what point do you say: ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it. remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease hitler to prevent World War Two,” Mr Aquino said.
The Sudetenland was part former Czechoslovakia.
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After his comments were published, China’s official state news agency, Xinhua, called Mr Aquino “ignorant”.
it said his comments “exposed his true colours as an amateurish politician, who was ignorant both of history and reality”.
China claims ownership of large parts of the South China Sea, including the Spratly islands and the Scarborough Shoal, which lie off the coast of the Philippines.
Both the Philippines and Vietnam say the land belongs to them.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy at the economic forum in davos last month, when he said China and Japan were “in a similar situation” to Germany and Britain at the outbreak of the First World War.