Even
pronounced nation like China passes through turbulent times. In 2012, it experienced
a severe shortage of human tetanus vaccinations when many medicine trade companies
cease to produce said medicines after seeing that it is no longer profitable.
China was alarmed over the spread of tetanus among its citizen. Great nation as
it claims to be, today, China is undeniably conducting a creeping incursion in
our territorial waters. But did you know that Mindoro could have already been
invaded by the Chinese as early as the 13th century? I cannot imagine how life
would feel like if it turned that way.
According
to Wikipedia, “The first semblance of a
political system in Mindoro's experience was provided by China in the 13th
century”. The Chinese tried to annex Mindoro but the plan was abandoned
when an internal trouble in the Chinese home front ensued. An ancient Chinese explorer
named Cheng Ho gained a page in Mindoro history as we have seen. Cheng Ho or
Zhen He (1371–1433 or 1435) was a Hui court eunuch and fleet admiral during
China's early Ming Dynasty.
In
the 13th century, unlike today, there was that strict traditional
Chinese isolationist policy. Cheng Ho recalled the armada going to Mindoro and
other parts of the archipelago because of this rule. In 1500, it was capital
offense to build big ships with the purpose of using it going to foreign soils.
Chinese coastal officials in 1525 destroyed all such ships while that time
Ferdinand Magellan and other Europeans reached Asian waters. As Portugal, Britain,
France and Spain and other European countries dominated global waters, China
padlocked her ports and destroyed her gigantic ships.
Contraction,
not expansion, was China’s order of the day in the 14th century. Not
anymore as the present headlines suggest.
China
then was superior compared to other country in the West when it comes to
technology, living standards and global influence. But the country became enveloped
in a smug self-sufficiency, cultural and economic inwardness, a closed and
centralized political system, and an anti-commercial culture. China believes that
they do no lack anything in many aspects like that of economy, politics and
culture so she closed its door to the rest of the world. It was during the 14th
and 15th century. Not anymore as the South China Sea or West
Philippine Sea row now suggest.
The
recent case filed by Manila against Beijing before the United Nation-backed
arbitral tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, according to Supreme Court Senior
Justice Antonio Carpio who is part of the Philippine delegation to the tribunal
said that the case, “[It] could take
maybe ten years,” and reminded us that, “We should steel ourselves that this will be a long struggle.” But if
by chance the Philippines win its case at the tribunal, there is no UN body to
enforce the ruling. So, in essence, the decision of the tribunal would not mean
much.
Meanwhile,
a ship called BRP Sierra Madre, a military outpost cum navy ship is holding its
position in the disputed waters. The World War II vintage ship, even if it is already
covered with rusts stays as symbol of our sovereignty.
It
could be a potent armament too against the Chinese, in case they run short of anti-tetanus vaccines again…
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(Photo:
Pray4hui.com)
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