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The US recycles China as their latest bogeyman
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2010-10-14
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David W. Chen’s October 9 New York Times article discussed how China had become the scapegoat of both the Republicans and the Democrats in the US mid-term elections. Both camps were blaming each other for exporting US jobs to China.
This comes as no surprise. For sometime now, China has been recycled as the latest bogeyman of the US. “The bogeyman will get you” was once a favorite scare threat of parents for disciplining naughty kids. The bogeyman is a fictitious character — no different from Jason and Freddie of today’s horror movies. Nobody also ever defined what the bogeyman looked like and that made the bogeyman scarier as the wild imaginations of kids further added to its frightening dimensions.
In US history, the bogeyman has appeared under various identities in several chapters. During the War for Independence, the bogeyman was the oppressive Redcoat – the British soldier. During the period of westward expansion, the bogeyman was the savage – the Native American — who was merely fighting to preserve his race, land and heritage. The Conquistador policy was applied — brand the natives as savages and that sort of justifies their extermination.
If you’re not an idiot, a person who does not know the truth, you’d be very wary whenever the US attempts to project somebody or another country as the new bogeyman. That is because the Americans have the knack for creating bogeymen and then pirouetting in the next moment in order to start embracing them as their new allies. They did this with the Japanese, Chinese, Russians – called “The Evil Empire” during the Ronald Reagan years – and the Vietnamese.
China was once depicted by the US as the Yellow Peril. This was during the reign of Chairman Mao in China, following the US setback in the Korean War. China’s sudden entry in the Korean conflict to save their beleaguered North Korean Communist allies kicked the Yanks back to South Korea. The US eventually made an about face and embraced China as its biggest trading partner.
Now, the US is poised to pirouette again – for the umpteenth time – and is systematically reconfiguring China’s global image as the latest bogeyman. If you can shift your attention from the latest updates on Robin and Mariel, Willie Revillame and ABS-CBN, Mariel and Toni, Mariel and KC – then you’ll notice how the US has been establishing a predicate for its big agenda in the South China Sea.
The new “bogeymanization” of China – a Chair Wrecker original concoction – has several dimensions. There is the Chinese violation of human rights, the unfair trade practices, the alarming military buildup, the “bully-in-the-region” tag — all intended to make the US look like a swashbuckling hero of a Hollywood film who will protect the world from the iconic voracious Chinese Tiger. That propaganda icon was how the US depicted China during the Cold War.
It must be stated that China isn’t exactly guiltless in all these negative attributes that the US is intensely propagating. Indeed, human rights violations have significantly blemished the global image of China. Yes, China refuses to adjust their Yuan currency to a more realistic level in order to preserve their marketing edge. To a small fry like the Philippines with a claim to the oil in the Spratlys – China would surely appear as a big bully trying to corner all the black gold there.
Hidden in this “bully-in-the-region” US projection of China is the real US agenda of also wanting to corner the last suspected big oil reserve in the world. The US is cleverly establishing an entry point in the South China Sea oil equation by offering to “protect” the other claimants from the big neighborhood bully. Fearing the big neighbor – China – even Vietnam has opted to forget its 1960s and 1970s conflict with the US and now welcomes US intervention in the basically Asian dispute. Historically, we tend to fear more the big threat nearest us.
Most Filipinos are unaware of how these developments which could lead to a US and China conflict will severely affect us. Why do you think the US has such a great interest in sponsoring that failed MOA-BJE (Memorandum of Agreement-Bangsamoro Juridical Entity) which would have Balkanized Philippine national territory? That MOA-BJE has less to do with Mindanao peace but everything to do with providing the US with a military offensive capability versus China.
In this developing US-China conflict, the big challenge confronting the Filipino is how to avoid being dragged into the US-China conflict. Maintaining Philippine neutrality is easier said than done because a weak State like ours is always vulnerable to the machinations and pressures of powerful countries.
Both the US and China are capable of undermining a Philippine administration if that will serve their national interest. That may seem revolting to a Filipino but it is regarded as a patriotic act by an American or Chinese who is merely serving his country’s national interest.
Our problems are compounded by Filipino Quislings who are willing to work for the interests of another country despite its clear agenda to exploit Filipino inability to recognize a lover from a rapist, a hero from a heel, a savior from an oppressor.
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