#Philippine Leader's Inconsistent Policy on #SouthChinaSea Hurts #Manila

President Rodrigo Duterte’s mixed messages have left Manila unable to advance its own claims in the South China Sea, analysts say.
rfa.org/english/news/c…
2/ Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s mixed messages and “wild swings” in policy-making on the thorny South China Sea issue have cost Manila opportunities to make headway over its territorial claims in the waterway during his five years in power, analysts say.
3/ “Clearly, his handling of foreign policy is very personalistic & he thinks by being personally friendly & extolling personal friendships, he'll influence China’s behavior,” said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Maritime Affairs Institute at the University of the Philippines.
4/ “It doesn’t work that way, of course, because we’ve seen how despite 5 years of this style, China has not actually eased up on its activities in the West Philippine Sea & it only gives China an advantage because the mixed messaging plays into China’s narratives.”

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More from @IndoPac_Info

4 Jun
#THREAD: At least 10,000 people died in #TiananmenSquaremassacre, a secret #British cable from the time says

Secret document say death toll was much higher than later reported, while claiming wounded students were bayoneted as they begged for their lives independent.co.uk/news/world/asi…
2/ First waves of troops went in unarmed to disperse the protesters. Then “The 27 Army APCs opened fire on the crowd before running over them. APCs ran over troops & civilians at 65kmh.” “Students were given one hour to leave square, but after five minutes, the APCs attacked. Image
3/ “Students linked arms but were mown down. APCs then ran over the bodies time and time again to make, quote ‘pie’ unquote, and remains collected by bulldozer. “The Remains were incinerated and then hosed down into the drains.” Image
Read 9 tweets
4 Jun
Thread: #TiananmenSquaremassacre Victim: The #CCP Hasn’t Changed

”Why was there an order to start killing?” Fang Zheng asked.

"The only thing that has changed today is the methods the #CCP uses to control people"

#Tiananmen32
#TiananmenMassacre
theepochtimes.com/tiananmen-squa…
2/ ”Why was there an order to start killing?” Fang Zheng asked. His simple query, among many other questions, has been unanswered for 3 decades. But Zheng—a victim turned activist whose legs were run over by a tank during the Tiananmen Massacre, is still fighting for the truth.
3/ The bloodbath, carried out by orders from the Communist Party (CCP), took the lives of throngs of Chinese students protesting for democratic reform on June 4, 1989. The regime continued to deny any involvement, & online searches of the incident are censored inside China.
Read 8 tweets
4 Jun
1/ Southeast #Asian countries edging closer to the #US

A fear of #China encroaching on territory pushes a number of countries to improve ties with the #US

#Philippines & #Malaysia are now edging closer to the US.
asiatimes.com/2021/06/southe…
2/ Throughout the past decade, Vietnam has been the only Southeast Asian nation that has consistently welcomed warmed ties with the West to counterbalance China. But other regional claimant states could soon do the same.
3/ After months of tough negotiations, Manila is set to retain the crucial Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which is essential to sustained and large-scale American military deployments to Southeast Asia.
Read 4 tweets
3 Jun
THREAD: The #Taiwan Temptation

Why #China Might Resort to Force

A palpable shift in #Beijing’s thinking has been made possible by a decades-long military modernization effort, accelerated by Xi, aimed at allowing China to force Taiwan back into the fold.
foreignaffairs.com/articles/china…
2/ Chinese leaders, including Xi, regularly extol the virtues of integration and cooperation with Taiwan, but the prospects for peaceful unification have been dwindling for years. Fewer and fewer Taiwanese see themselves as Chinese or desire to be a part of mainland China.
3/ The reelection of 'Tsai Ing-wen, reinforced Beijing’s fears that Taiwanese will never willingly come back to the motherland. The death knell for peaceful unification came in June 2020, when China exerted sweeping new powers over Hong Kong through a new national security law.
Read 5 tweets
2 Jun
#US flags 'serious concerns' over #Cambodia's #China backed navy base

U.S. senior diplomat Wendy Sherman says Washington has "serious concerns" about China's "military presence" at Ream naval base undergoing a Beijing-backed expansion on Cambodia's coast.
asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Inter…
2/ A potential flashpoint is Ream Naval Base in Cambodia's Sihanoukville Province, facing the Gulf of Thailand, where China is backing an expansion of facilities.

In 2019, the Pentagon expressed concerns the expansion is to host Chinese assets at the site.
3/ The commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Philip Davidson told lawmakers that in September 2020, Cambodia razed a U.S- built facility on Ream Naval Base that served as the headquarters for the National Committee on Maritime Security.
Read 4 tweets
2 Jun
Deterring War in the #Taiwan Strait: A Bigger Security Role for #Japan is Key

Former foreign ministry official warns that Japan must assume a larger role in the Japan #US alliance to avert a cross-strait conflict that could engulf Japan’s outlying islands
nippon.com/en/in-depth/a0…
2/ Now that China is an economic and military titan, state-sponsored patriotism has turned toxic. People have come to believe that it's China’s natural right to recover territory the Qing empire ceded to imperialist powers & regain the influence it once had over tributary states.
3/ A security crisis for Taiwan would be a security crisis for Japan. There can be no room for bickering over whether such a contingency would threaten Japan’s existence or merely the peace and security of the region.
Read 4 tweets

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