MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/21 October) — The Communist Party of the Philippines on Friday warned President Rodrigo Duterte to exercise caution in dealing with China which it views as a “burgeoning imperialist power.”
In an article published in the October 21, 2016 issue of Ang Bayan, the CPP said China is confronting “a capitalist crisis in finance and over production” and seeking “areas to dump its surplus goods and bigger sources of cheap labor-power and raw materials to run its so-called Factory Asia-the network of tightly linked factories in different countries that engage in semi-processing.”
The article said China’s inventory of surplus goods (steel, cellphones and other electronic products and parts) and surplus capital is growing.
The CPP was reacting to Duterte’s statement during his state visit to China that the Philippines wanted to “separate” from its long-time ally, the US, and forge economic and security arrangements with the host country and Russia.
The party, which is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the new administration, viewed Duterte’s policy of amity and friendship with China with both wariness and optimism.
“On the one hand, the revolutionary movement is aware that China has its imperialist self-interest in forging friendship with the Philippines. On the other hand, they also see the opportunities for positive changes in the economy and people’s livelihood which were long closed because of US domination and reliance,” it said.
The CPP, a Maoist revolutionary organization, said China has discarded socialism after 1976, or after the death of Mao Zedong, and has since embraced capitalism.
It added that China, aside from expanding its “economic empire,” has also deployed military forces in various parts of the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
“China’s geopolitical interests are increasing and its challenge to US hegemony is growing,” it said.
The party said “Duterte’s friendship with China can help the Filipino people in their struggle to break free from US control and domination and end reliance on US imperialism…only if the Filipino people’s national democratic struggle will continue to advance and if the Duterte regime will forge with them a patriotic alliance.”
It said Chinese investments must be allotted to support national industrialization and genuine land reform to make the local economy self-reliant.
But it warned that China is planning to build large plantations for export production which “contravenes the interests of the peasant masses and the minority peoples and is destructive to the environment. This must not be allowed to become a dominant aspect in the rural economy.”
It further warned that “if Duterte will not uphold the democratic interests of the people, Philippine ties with China will only lead to replacing the giant that dominates and plunders the country and the perpetuation of foreign monopoly capitalist plunder of the country.”
The CPP urged China to stop its exclusive claims to the fishing area around Bajo de Masinloc in the West Philippine Sea and support calls for demilitarization of the disputed territory.
In July this year the UN Arbitral Tribunal ruled that China has no legal basis to assert sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea and its “nine-dash line” is invalid.
The Tribunal said China has violated Philippine sovereignty over the disputed territories as well as the latter’s historic rights to resources within the “nine-dash line”.
It added it was unlawful for China to physically obstruct Philippine vessels from the Spratly Islands and its reefs in the West Philippine Sea.
China has snubbed the case filed by the Philippines, and maintained it would refuse to recognize the proceedings. (MindaNews)
