Rumor has it that when Bongbong went to China he asked Xi to protect him militarily in even if coup but Xi refused him. Now he is just finding someone who could protect him.
Interesting. Are you talking about a coup as in a domestic coup by pH locals and military, or are you talking about a coup by USA, like assassinating him or ousting him from power by supporting some kind of opposition? I remember duterte saying stuff like CIA could assassinate him but he doesn't care. USA currently has charges pending and hanging over his head, as well as holding like hundreds of millions of dollars of his families money and also as a fine in that court case against him in USA. They basically got a warrant for this arrest which was suspended when he became president because of diplomatic immunity. So when he leaves office, he will be fair game again. Maybe he was looking to china for protection in this regard, or hoping for China to bribe him somehow and protect him? Then he can run away to China after like his father or something and live a privileged life and not worry about assassination or "rendition" or whatever.
And yet ME and most of my Hua Qiao tribe thrive, I'm not saying its all fine and dandy after all we suffered discrimination along the way, it's how you handle things, rather than complain about it, we work hard and improve ourself, it make you a better person and build character. So respect is earned not given that's what we're getting right now, like I always mentioned being Chinese is beautiful and the mainlander should be grateful cause we made it easier for them to assimilate.
I guess I am also part of that "Hua Qiao tribe" as an overseas Chinese myself. I think we are talking about different things here, both in terms of respect, and in terms of the party being respected. you seem to be talking about mainland Chinese as an individual or culturally, I am mainly talking about China as a whole country.
And the respect I am talking about is pure strength. Like you can hate someone and not respect them as a person or not respect their culture or ideology, but you MUST respect them in terms of pure strength as a country and in terms of military or technology or economy etc, which are like objective things and not subjective.
Do Philippines not even respect Chinese national power in terms of military? Because that is what actually matters here since it will be a military/national challenge. Not about some culture or ideological war since China doesn't care what culture or ideology pH has, and I assume it's the same for ph about china.
So in the end, if pH doesn't respect China's power, then i can understand their continued provocations and actions. But if they do respect(or at least acknowledge) China's power, then I guess this is just some delusional ego thing for them and they are taking China's patience as weakness? How far can China accommodate such challenge to China's national prestige and for how long? That is the 100 billion dollar question.
I remember china had no real issues smacking Vietnam down inside SCS over disputed territories ala Johnson South reef skirmish in 88, but is China actually worried about USA getting involved? Personally I don't think so since even though USA has defense treaty with pH and those like blinken talk a big game and play up the defense treaty and even saying it applies to coast guard, USA themselves do not recognize pH sovereignty over the disputed territories. USA, even after getting new military bases, still doesn't recognize ph sovereignty, and USA warships never accompany pH navy or coast guard on their acts of provocation or "acts of self humiliation" depending on how you see it lol.
The treaty itself was signed in 1951, and back then, just like now, USA did not and does not recognize pH sovereignty. If anything usa recognized Chinese sovereignty, albeit under ROC. Usa themselves took ROC to reclaim Taiping Island on ROCS taiping ship which was an American warship originally and renamed in honor of that reclamation action after WW2.
I think even usa knows that it would be folly of the highest order to get roped into a direct war with China in SCS over some useless rocks/reefs which could be triggered by defense treaty and so USA stays far far away from any such situations which could lead to escalation or put them in a situation where they would have to lose even more face than they have currently lost by continuing to talk a big game about helping ph or defending them when in reality, their actions show they don't intend to do anything of the sort.
It seems to be like both pH and USA are trying to use each other as cannon fodder in some kind of proxy war(cold for now, and both hope to keep it cold and not hot) against China. Both are egging each other on, but both are too scared to actually be the one who throws the first punch because they know the one who does will just get stomped/sacrificed while the other one runs away. Lol. Ph and USA in that sense aren't really allies, if anything they are even more enemies to each other than china is. I'm not sure how much usa even supports the current continued provocations because it just makes USA look weak by doing nothing, and if anything, a direct war vs China in SCS right now is the last thing usa wants.
