Some thoughts on Philippines-China relations in #COVID19 era. The situation arose at an inconvenient time: sending home of a veteran (and effective) Chinese ambassador and the appointment of a new one almost immediately faced with resolving POGO tensions then brewing pandemic...
Beijing had increasingly taken to playing hardball with Manila which proved itself nowhere near as obliging as Phnom Penh on Beijing's displeasure with POGOs. At the time of start of pandemic, Beijing had taken to cancelling passports of citizens identified as working in POGOs...
the Philippine government going through lethargic and small efforts at crackdowns. When the public started to take news of what was still an epidemic and not yet a pandemic (officially at least) clamor of public opinion was for sealing off the country from China-origin flights...
a clamor resisted by the government, rather than risk Beijing's ire. As subsequently chronicled by the NYT, it was in this early stage that the mass exodus from Wuhan spread the virus around the globe (note dates in timeline of report)... nytimes.com/interactive/20…
...it may be that even public opinion would've been too late even if followed by government; but the point had been made that relations with Beijing were Manila's prime concern anyway (explained by pushback by Beijing towards governments inclined to ban China flights)...
That Beijing was being prioritized over native concerns was underscored by the head of the .@philredcross mobilizing domestic manufacturers to send millions of facemasks to China, when public opinion had already been sore over the lack of masks in the wake of Taal Volcano...
What followed was a heavy-handed wave of online messaging from government supporters (real or simulated) to try to evoke sympathy for Mainlander Chinese here, as public alarm and resentment rapidly shifted to racist opinions and actions (always ready to erupt), which only...
...antagonized public opinion all the more. Though it has to be said that just as it had almost certainly quietly influenced Manila's uncooperative attitude to Beijing previously, middle and upper class interests aligned in the background with Manila's desire not to kill the POGO
golden goose. Still, events took over: a mass exodus of POGO workers started to take place as the pandemic not only spread globally but deepened in China. It may have been exacerbated by local pressure in some areas to evict POGOs; then again, even as domestic business big and...
small hunkered down and suspended operations for #LuzonLockdown, news began to leak that POGOs had retreated from their offices and were "working from home," with occasional reports of POGO workers enjoying .@pnppio escorts, etc. Now the public has never quite seen the tense...
"relationship" between Beijing and POGOs (they operate in defiance of state policy), so continued operations are widely (mis)understood as being made possible by bribery or intimidation (or both) by Beijing when I am not convinced that is the case at all. Still, the result is...
to alienate the government from the public. The most recent example, of Beijing very publicly and aggressively applying pressure on .@DOHgovph for a spokesperson's observations on some China-sourced testing kits, further ramped up public feelings about the lack of widespread...
testing and the authorities being more responsive to official Chinese feelings than expressions of public opinion from its own citizens. Add to this news of continued Chinese activities in Philippine areas in the West Philippine Sea, and the idea that China, having overcome...
the worst of the #COVID19 pandemic, is now disinterestedly helping the world (including the Philippines), becomes something hard to believe. Yet the government must rely on Chinese generosity for ventilators and equipment as the West scoops up supplies for its own needs...
Which suggests no change in the dynamics between a government experiencing deep unpopularity (but perhaps not as deep as oppositionists might hope) and a Beijing viewing the post-pandemic era as a means to boost its international stature and rescue its own sagging leadership./end
