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China news tagged with: philippines (7)

• Basilan Execs Lose Track of 2 Kidnapped Chinese

  

  Michael Tan and Oscar Lu, both Chinese nationals, were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf gunmen Nov. 10, 2009, and the group responsible is no longer communicating with the authorities for the return of the hostages:

  Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul) said the bandit group earlier rejected an emissary sent by the government to negotiate and then cut off communication with officials after that.

  “They sent home our emissary because they claimed to have already contacted the families of Michael Tan and Oscar Lu in China. They didn’t want our emissary because we told him not to talk about ransom,” he said.

  The Abu Sayyaf faction, holding the two Chinese nationals and headed by Puruji Indama, has demanded P13 million in ransom money…”The truth is right now, we don’t know where the captors brought or are hiding the two. We don’t have anymore updates from the ground and this George Tan no longer communicates with the kidnappers since early this year,” (Sakalahul) said.

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  • February 16, 2010 10:56 PM

• A Satire That Caused an Uproar in Both China and The Philippines

  

  Hong Kong columnist Chip Tsao (陶杰 Tao Jie) wrote a satirical article recently commenting on the dispute over the Spratly Islands between China and the Philippines. Very few Chinese or Filipinos got his humor. Instead, so many Filipinos were infuriated by the “racism” displayed in the article that Manila barred Tsao’s entry. While Tsao received very different reactions from Chinese readers, his message was also misinterpreted. Tsao was trying to ridicule fanatic patriotism in the article. But tens of thousands Chinese thought he was defending China’s territory and are lauding him as a patriotic hero.

  Tsao is a seasoned newsman and a well-known columnist in Hong Kong. He got his college education in Britain, worked for BBC for some years, and now writes articles for Apple Daily and Hong Kong Magazine regularly.

  The article at issue, A War at Home, was published in Hong Kong Magazine on March 27, in which Tsao wrote about the Spratly Islands dispute from the perspective of fervent patriots among his countrymen.

  The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

  But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as HK$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

  As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China…

  The phrase “a nation of servants” together with other “racist” remarks — if they are taken literally — offended Filipino workers in Hong Kong and back home. They staged a protest, and the Bureau of Immigration in Manila barred Tsao from entering the Philippines. Tsao’s publisher, Hong Kong Magazine, has pulled the article off its website and replaced it with an apology.

  The story appeared in headlines on dozens of major news websites in Mainland China shortly afterward, getting a sea of responses from readers.

  The Chinese reporter who wrote the story didn’t bother to contact Tsao for comment, and he probably didn’t read Tsao’s original article. Instead, Fang Xiao at Dongfang Daily described the incident as follows:

  …Tsao said in the article that as a patriot, he could not stand the Filipino government’s claim of sovereignty over Spratly Islands, because there are more than 130,000 Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. He wrote, “as a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master.”

  The Dongfang Daily story was posted Monday on the top section at Sina.com, the most popular news portal in China, under the headline, “More than a thousand Filipino workers demonstrated in Hong Kong to protest racial discrimination.”

  Racial discrimination is usually not a hot topic among the Chinese public. The editors of Sina.com posted the story as a top one probably because it involves territorial disputes, which often catch the eyes of millions in China.

  The several thousand comments made by readers under the article are intriguing. They vividly exhibit how the general public in China view national sovereignty and racial equality. Below are a dozen comments representing diverse viewpoints selected and translated by CDT:

  —Domestic workers are human beings. They should be respected. This is a different matter from the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands. On the other hand, overseas Filipino workers and their government should definitely respect history and respect China’s sacred territorial sovereignty, while their labor and dignity are respected.

  —I support Tao Jie (Chip Tsao). What’s wrong with racial discrimination? Who treated the Chinese as human beings when the Joint Forces of Eight Nations invaded Beijing and during the Nanjing Massacre?

  —The people in Hong Kong are very proud. They look down on mainland Chinese. Thus it’s not surprising that they look down on the Filipinos. In the 80s, the Hong Kong students in America never thought themselves as Chinese and never made friends with us mainland students.

  —The people in Hong Kong show their patriotism by discriminating against their domestic servants. How ridiculous!That’s extremely ridiculous!!!

  —Why do you employ Filipino workers if you are patriotic? Why can’t you look for mainland workers instead? Dispelling the Filipino domestic servants from Hong Kong and hiring mainland workers, you will create so many new jobs for us. That could be called real patriotism.

  —Do not impose on others something you dislike! Why have we Chinese become so selfish today? Can’t we put ourselves in other people’s shoes? If we were them (the Filipinos), wouldn’t we stand up to defend our motherland? Think about the relations between China and Japan in the past…What’s the difference between our current behavior and the old conduct of the Japanese?

  —We could just take them (the Filipino workers) as dogs which were barking in front of their masters. They don’t even deserve to be servants! I can’t help but feel superior when it comes to my mind that this country (the Philippines) was dependent on us during the Tang Dynasty!!

  —I didn’t like Tao Jie before and regarded him as a lackey of foreigners. I was surprised that he actually loves the nation. I completely agree with his points. I will fire the Filipino worker at my home today and show my support through action.

  —His patriotic remarks are too extreme! They don’t match with the mettle of a big power (as China).

  —It takes courage to make an apology. We can not disrespect any people from any country.

  —Tao Jie’s remarks are shameful. I can’t accept them! He inherited the tone of racist discrimination from the British colonists. We must criticize that.

  —Tao Jie should learn to be smarter. He could have just kept those thoughts to himself. Why did he have to say it?

  The above comments are selected from more 3,000 posted under the Sina.com article.

  Asiasentinel.com published an article on the incident, Satire Lost In A Foreign Language, by Alice Poon.

  A well-known Hong Kong journalist and blogger, Lv Qiu Lu Wei, also wrote a blog article A Patriotic Writer? commenting on the incident (in Chinese).

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  • April 8, 2009 1:42 PM

• China Calls on World Bank to Provide Evidence of Graft

  

  The World Bank has accused four Chinese construction firms of corruption and and banned them from working on a project in the Philippines. From AFP:

  The World Bank on Thursday said it found evidence of collusion among four Chinese and three Filipino construction firms in the bidding for a road project in the Philippines.

  The bank subsequently cancelled the tender for 33 million dollars’ worth of contracts, and banned the firms from future tenders.

  “The companies said there were flaws in the World Bank’s investigation in terms of evidence and investigation procedures,” Yao Jian, spokesman of China’s commerce ministry, said in a statement posted on his ministry’s website.

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  • January 17, 2009 3:46 PM

• Anti-Chinese Cracks in Philippine Rice Bowls

  

  As the price of rice increases and as demand for this staple food outpaces supply, the Asia Times examines how it is fueling anti-Chinese sentiments in the Philippines, a nation dependent on rice and on Chinese rice merchants:

  Ask a woman named Cora why these days she has to spend so much more for rice for her food stand and family and she’s got a fast racial response. “The Chinese are the ones,” she said without hesitation. “They are handling all these things. They are the capitalists of the Philippines.”

  Shopping for the lowest prices in one of Manila’s traditional markets, Cora blames “seven names” – the names of the Filipino-Chinese merchants who are widely accused of hoarding rice in order to reap higher and higher profits by driving up prices. . .

  The [Filipino] government fears violence will spread as millions go hungry. To offset the threat, it recently had to sign another contract to import 1.5 million tons of rice from Vietnam, which also has obligations to ship rice to China and elsewhere. That, however, will not be enough to cover the total import needs of more than two million tons, which makes the Philippines the world’s biggest rice importer.

  The widespread view that Filipino-Chinese merchants, who are known to control the import and distribution of rice, are hoarding supplies plays into the deepest anti-Chinese sentiments of a country perceived locally to be dominated by “rich Chinese” in just about every area of business and finance.

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  • April 2, 2008 9:43 PM

• China Accused of Corruption in Philippine Rail Project

  

  As part of ASEAN, the Southeast Asian regional trade bloc, China has invested some $2 billion in the Philippines. Markeplace’s Scott Tong reports on its latest project, Northrail, a half-billion dollar railway line connecting Manila to a U.S. military base. But legal advisors to the Philippines say the Beijing lenders broke the law when it sidestepped the country’s competitive bidding process and hand picked the contractor – a Chinese contractor. They say this is not an isolated instance of Chinese corruption.

  Northrail isn’t the only Chinese-funded project facing corruption questions. There are at least four. Senator Alan Cayetano heads the investigations.

  Alan Cayetano: This is the year of the rat, and here in the Senate we smell big rats.

  But other international observers say China is simply making missteps, rather than calculated maneuvers.

  Peking University international relations scholar Zhang Xizheng sees rookie mistakes.

  Zhang Xizheng: China has been developing so fast. Its companies just got rich, and they think they have all this economic power. But they don’t understand market rules and laws, so it’s almost inevitable they broke them.

  Political scientist Renato de Castro believes the Chinese were also unprepared for Manila’s mudslinging politicians and its nosy journalists.

  Renato de Castro: It’s a learning process for them. They basically realized things will not work outside China the same way things work inside China.

  Still, this is not the first Chinese scandal in the Philippines, and president Gloria Arroyo continues facing calls for her resignation.

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  • March 12, 2008 6:24 AM

• Paradox for Philippines as Chinese Set Up Shop – Roel Landingin

  

  Part 5 of Financial Times’ Asia immigration series once again reports on the wave of Chinese migrants adjusting to other societies and vice versa. In the Philippines, newcomers are not welcomed by established Chinese immigrants.

  She hardly speaks any English or Tagalog but that does not stop the white-haired grandmother from China’s southern Fujian province from running her clothes store in Divisoria, Manila’s bargain shopping centre. She has three Filipina assistants and she haggles with customers via a calculator.

  Like many of the shop- owners in the “168″ mall – which, in Cantonese, sounds like “prosperity all the way” – the grandmother is a recent arrival from China and part of a new wave of immigrants who have arrived in the Philippines. [Full Text]

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  • July 24, 2007 10:54 AM

• Philippine rebels say China abandoned Maoist cause

  

  From Reuters:

  Philippine communist rebels, turning from allies to critics of China, said on Tuesday that Beijing’s shift to a capitalist economy had undermined some revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia.

  The 8,000-member New People’s Army (NPA), which drew ideological inspiration from China’s first generation of communist leaders, has been waging a violent guerrilla war for more than 35 years to overthrow the Philippine government

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  • May 3, 2005 8:28 AM

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