China, Philippines, and the U.S. are equal sovereign states

In Law school decades ago, I learned from the subject Public International Law, this principle of sovereign equality of states. Accordingly, “all sovereign states are legally and juridically equal, regardless of differences in their size, wealth, military power, or political influence.” Dr. Jovito Salonga, former Senate president, whose book I revisited in preparation for writing this article today said that “understandably (this is) the pet principle of small, weak states. xxx (because it) would be sheer naiveté to think of the Philippines as a political equal of the United States xxx” or China, for that matter. While indeed, Article 2(1) of the UN Charter guarantees the sovereign equality of all member states, this equality is normative (de jure) rather than practical (de facto). Small states though, like the Philippines habitually cling to international law as a shield, whereas major powers treat law as a tool or an inconvenience depending on their strategic calculus.

My interest in this international law principle was aroused when I saw, on Facebook, an interview of a certain Victor Gao. On the screen’s side bar, I read that he’s a vice president of Center for China and Globalization. Globalization, my goodness! After a quick query to the internet, I learned that this center is a prominent Beijing-based, non-governmental public policy think tank founded in 2008 by scholars Dr. Wang Huiyao (Henry Wang) and Dr. Mable Lu Miao. What a cover. With the television camera focused on him, Gao’s intended propaganda was exposed as carrying a carefully-veiled threat. He said: “I don’t think there will be U.S.-China dialogue unless U.S. changes its attitude. Show respect to China, show respect to the Chinese people and don’t try to impose your prejudice and biased view about China. China is prepared to fight to the very end.”

While this center is reportedly a “non-governmental public policy think tank” Gao’s statement appeared to be an authoritative pronouncement of Communist China. He sounded more like the spokesman of Chinese armed forces instead of being an academic. How else can we take his words of China being prepared to fight to the very end? I see the real equality of sovereign states here not just in words but in military strength. To say the least, U.S. and China are of the same footing militarily speaking. China’s superior number of armed bodies finds match in American military arsenal. Neither of them can just bully the other. If they go to war, it can be a fight to an unpredictable finish. That’s why the communists, with private citizen (?) Gao imploring the U.S. to show them respect, would rather want a dialogue with the Americans.

This is classic Maoist double talk. Where’s this thing called “respect” when the Chinese seized the Philippines’ Mischief Reef in the West Philippine Sea? When a Chinese submarine-launched ballistic missile overflew parts of the Philippines on July 6, 2026, was it not disrespectful and reckless display of its military might against us? China and the Philippines are supposedly equal sovereign states. So the Chinese should respect our territorial sovereignty. The reality is that they don’t consider us as equal sovereign. Our equality is purely a legal fiction which they can just disregard any time. This they did and continue to do in not recognizing the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration declaring most part of the West Philippine Sea to be our Exclusive Economic Zone. To quote again Salonga’s book, Public International Law, this is our pet principle because we are a small state facing a giant. We can only assert our right in words but not with military clout.

The question is who among our leaders will take the lead to unite our fragmented positions and take visible actions to assert our sovereign rights against China’s bullying? Anyone?