‘Amateurish’

Things, I fear, will get much worse before they even begin to look better.

Bilateral relations between the Philippines and China plunged to their lowest this week. Even then, they have not touched rock bottom — not yet.

Two significant things relating to the bilateral relationship happened the past few days: Hong Kong authorities imposed visa requirements on Filipino nationals travelling with official passports and President Aquino made those unfortunate remarks comparing Beijing’s leadership to Hitler’s government.

The repercussions will be grave. The fallout has just begun to happen.

Hong Kong’s imposition of visa requirements is a severe show of displeasure over the Philippine government’s refusal to issue an official apology for the gross bungling of a hostage incident three years ago involving tourists from the territory. Aquino foreclosed any possibility an apology was forthcoming. His spokesman basically pooh-poohed the punitive measure, underscoring perception our government is not only insensitive but also ignorant of the significance of decision.

Adding salt to the wound, some of our officials began uttering truly idiotic things like the Philippines not demanding apology for two incidents in Beijing where Filipinos were killed. The first incident involved an accidental death caused by a wayward vehicle. The second incident involved the killing of two Filipinos by a seriously deranged man (subsequently executed for the crimes).

Neither involved acts of official neglect or incompetence. They cannot be compared to the official failings during the Luneta incident, which our own fact-finding committee established. That committee’s recommendation for charges to be filed against former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim and others have been blissfully ignored by Malacanang.

Responding to Aquino’s rejection of an apology, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong government announced her government will wait until his term is over before reiterating its claims. The implication of that statement is that Hong Kong will no longer be dealing with this administration.

It is still entirely possible Hong Kong will escalate its punitive measures, widening the visa requirement to cover all Filipino passports, imposing added restrictions on our OFWs and squeezing our exports that pass through the territory to the China market. Our poor migrant workers will pay for the undiplomatic behavior of this administration.

The second incident could have even more serious consequences for all of us.

Aquino recently sat for an interview with the prestigious New York Times. For some reason, in the course of that interview, he strayed into complex historical events beyond his depth, drawing inaccurate comparisons.

Trying to attract international support for Philippine claims over several South China Sea areas, Aquino summoned the image of the Munich Agreement of 1938 that caused the cession of part of Czechoslovakia to Germany. That part, the Sudetenland, was populated by ethnic Germans and became part of the Czechoslovakia after the maps were redrawn with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Europe, as we know, is a jigsaw puzzle of national boundaries drawn in the aftermath of wars and the dissolution of empires.

Loss of the Sudetenland was wound on German pride, having been forced to yield much after its defeat in WWI. Hitler claimed the Germans in the territory were oppressed. Conventional historical interpretation puts the Munich Agreement (where the Czechs were excluded by the great powers) as part of the policy of appeasement of Hitler by the allies in a vain attempt to avert war. That conventional interpretation, anchored on the theme of timidity on the part of the western allies, has been subject to challenge.

After WWII, the German population of Sudetenland was forcibly removed and transferred to Germany, a nation crushed by the conflict. The depopulated territory was returned to Czechoslovak borders.

Comparison of the cession of the Sudetenland to the situation prevailing in the contested areas in the South China Sea is at best poor historiography. At worse, it may be considered malicious comparison — the view Beijing has taken.

Whoever fed Aquino the idea of comparing China to Nazi Germany ought to be fired. It was not only historically inaccurate, it was also politically insensitive. That comparison was totally unnecessary, given the precarious state of our bilateral relations. The remarks, understandably, threw up a diplomatic storm.

A commentary immediately put out by Xinhua news agency, considered the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) was angry and unremitting. It was brimming with insults against Aquino. It was like they sat him on a chair and slapped him over and over again.

No Asian leader has been subjected to such treatment by Beijing, bringing our bilateral relationship to near-irreparable.

The Xinhua commentary described Aquino an “amateurish politician” making “lame historical comparisons.” It accuses Aquino of taking an “inflammatory approach” to the territorial issues. Using a fine scalpel for insult, the piece puts down Aquino by saying “he has never been a great candidate for wise statesman in the region.”

The tone of the Xinhua commentary, like the remarks of the spokesperson for the Hong Kong government, indicates that as far as our bilateral relationship is concerned, no diplomacy is possible until this administration steps down. The commentary itself suggests “the Philippines can enjoy even greater benefits from a peaceful and prosperous China when bilateral relations are anchored by steady hands.” That after suggesting Aquino is unsteady.

An unrelated, but relevant, story carried in the same Xinhua website I checked, reports that Chinese tourist arrivals in the Philippines dropped 70% in 2013. It seems we have just taken several steps out to the periphery, away from the center of gravity of the region’s economy.

Blame that on irresponsible utterances at the top.