Why are the Chinese friendly to Arroyo? Because she offered them the Spratlys.

Above: Chinese President Wen Jiabao and his bitch

I always wondered why the Chinese didn’t make a fuzz out of Gloria Arroyo’s earlier decision to scrap the ZTE-NBN broadband deal after Romulo Neri’s appearance in the Senate made the deal extremely unpopular late last year.

In my view, the decision should have made the Chinese at least express their disappointment over the fickle-mindedness of the Arroyo government. They didn’t. Their president even tapped Arroyo’s shoulders as if benignly saying, "that’s okay, little girl." Why?

Well one can point to Gloria Arroyo’s statement during the ASEAN Regional Forum summit in Cebu last year saying the ASEAN should be proud to have China as "its big brother" in the region as one reason. 

She was the only one supporting China then. The ASEAN hardly saw China as their big brother. In fact, the ASEAN, or most of its members, were suspicious of Beiijing’s actions and intentions in the region.

And that suspicion was not limited to Southeast Asia, too. Encouraged by Dick Cheney, Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Australia’s John Howard tried to forge a three-way alliance with India that was basically aimed at checking Beiijing’s growing power in the region.

So, was China’s counting on Arroyo to break the trend of anti-Beiijing suspicions among Asian leaders the reason why they didn’t make a big deal out of her scrapping the ZTE deal? Could be.

But then again even before Arroyo scrapped the ZTE deal, the trend of anti-Beiijing suspicions among Asian leaders has already shrinked dramatically.

Both Shinzo Abe and John Howard were already out of office. Abe’s successor, Yasuo Fukuda, is a pacifist who is bent on reconciling with China over historical disputes. Howard’s successor, Kevin Rudd, on the other hand, is the only non-Chinese prime minister who can speak Chinese. A former diplomat whose expertise was China, he is generally viewed as pro-Beiijing. In fact, just recently, he dissmissed Abe and Howards’ earlier call for a three-way alliance with India to contain China and insisted that relations with China is of paramount importance.

In short, Beiijing no longer needs Gloria Arroyo in terms of being a beacon of pro-Chinese sentiments among the leaders of the region. So why is China still treating Arroyo as their girl? Or more like their bitch, lol. Why?

Former Asian Wall Street Journal Editor Barry Wain has the answer: because she sold the Spratly Islands and other Philippine maritime territories to the Chinese.

In his article that appeared on the February issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Wain exposed the ramification of the Agreement for Seismic Undertaking in Certain Areas in the South China Sea By and Between the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the Philippine National Oil Company, which was signed secretly by Arroyo during her visit to Beiijing in 2004.

Wain says this agreement is a bungle on the part of the Philippines because it effectively destroys the political solidarity of the ASEAN on the issue.

"What most observers don’t realize is that in the last few years, regional cooperative efforts to coax Beiijing into a more measured stance have been set back by one of the rival claimants (the Philippines) to the islands," Wain wrote.

What does this mean?

Well, let’s try to see what the Philippines’ official approach on this issue was, before Arroyo took over:

When the Chinese built up structures in the Mischief Reef in 1995, the Ramos government made noise in the international media. The Right called for effective mobilization of the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the AFP Modernization Law was hurriedly passed by Congress.

But instead of escalating the tensions, what the brilliant Filipino diplomats did was to rally the ASEAN politically so that China would have to deal with Southeast Asian nations as a group.

Beiijing insisted that agreements must be made with claimant-states bilaterally instead of multilaterally through ASEAN as proposed by the Philippines. Bilateral negotiation means China would negotiate with the claimants individually instead of as a group. The implication is that given China’s strong leverage (it is militarily and economically mighty), she can easily coax individual claimants into agreeing with her demands.

For example, if the Philippines will be alone in dealing with China over the Spratly fiasco, the Philippines will have nothing to intimidate China with. The Philippines lags militarily. And Manila has nothing to threaten China economically, too. Which means that the Philippines will never be in the position to, say, encourage China not to build additional installations in the Mischief Reef.

On the other hand, the ASEAN, as a group, is a potent force. It can match China in many aspects. And it can cripple China’s economy as well.

That’s why when ASEAN said let’s stop doing stupid actions that escalates tensions in the South China Sea, the Chinese said yes and reluctantly stopped building more installations in Mischief Reef and other islands. That’s why we haven’t seen China making provocative moves in the region for many years. Because China knows that a united ASEAN is a force to reckon.

It’s like a bunch of average Joes being united against a bully.

And the bully has been for years trying to destroy the unity of these average Joes but couldn’t.

Until a bitch named Gloria went to Beiijing in 2004.

The Chinese cheered as she blew the ASEAN solidaity off by signing the said agreement of joint seismic study with China without consulting the other ASEAN members. What’s more, Arroyo did it without consulting the experts in the Department of Foreign Affairs as well.

Says Wain: "By not consulting other ASEAN members beforehand, the Philippines abandoned the collective stance that was key to the group’s success with China over the South China Sea."

Vietnam protested this bilateral negotiations between Manila and Beiijing initially because it destroys ASEAN unity. But when Hanoi saw that the damage has been done, she just decided to join the venture in 2005, making it a Tripartite Agreement. As former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino puts it, Vietnam was "seeking to make the best out of an unsatisfactory situation."

And China was (is) very happy with Vietnam’s inclusion in the agreement. Because it effectively enfeebled the ASEAN stance of dealing with China as a bloc over the issue. Already, China is said to be preparing to approach Brunei and Malaysia, the other ASEAN claimants, separately on the issue.

If these separate negotiations push through, the ASEAN would effectively be split. And if the ASEAN is to be divided, China will be able to do as she pleases in the region.

In fact, this early, Beiijing already did something very provocative: setting up an agency in Hainan to "administer" the Spratly and Paracel islands as if the sovereignty issue has been resolved in China’s favor. Vietnam and Malaysia protested. Arroyo remained silent.  

"The Philippines, militarily weak and lagging economically, has opted for Chinese favors at the expense of ASEAN political solidarity," Wain further wrote.

How very true.

But this wasn’t only at the expense of ASEAN political solidarity but of the territorial integrity of the Philippines as well.

Initially, Beiijing and Manila tried very hard to keep the location of their joint study secret. But after it was leaked into research circles, it became clear that it was, as independent South China Sea expert mark Valencia puts it, "a sell-out on the part of the Philippines."

The FEER artcle says that the designated location was "a vast swathe of ocean off Palawan in the southern Philippines, thrusts into the Spratlys and abuts Malampaya, a Philippine-producing gas field. About one-sixth of the area, closest to the Philippine coastline, is outside the claims by China and Vietnam."

Why let the foreigners exploit through seismic studies these exclusive Philippine territories? And why keep that secret for a long time?

Valencia continues: "Worse, by agreeing to joint surveying, Manila implicitly considers the Chinese and Vietnamese claims to have a legitimate basis."

This indirect support for China’s historic claim to the area, according to Wain, weakens the position of fellow ASEAN claimants Brunei and Malaysia, who argue on principles concerning continental shelfs.

"It is a stunning about-face by Manila," he wrote.

So, that’s why.

The losses of China in scrapping the ZTE-NBN deal is negligible compared to how much it would gain geopolitically and economically through this sell-out by that bitch in Malacanang.

That’s the reason why China is friendly to Gloria Arroyo.

Now, geopolitics is quid pro quo. Arroyo won’t deliver these to China without something in return. Unless she is naive and stupid. Which she is not. She’s a traitor.

So for how much did Arroyo sell our sovereignty to the Chinese? I don’t know yet. But I’m sure the Northrail project is part of the deal. There is definitely more to the Northrail project than what meets the eye.