Instead of healing the rift between the Philippines and China, apparently, Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III has only worsened this rift with his recent statement wherein he compared that what is happening with China today is akin to what happened to Czechoslovakia back in 1938 when the Western nations looked the other way and literally allowed Nazi Germany's Der Fuhrer Adolf Hitler to annex Czechoslovakia and renamed it Sudetenland because of the Sudenten Germans living there.
Because the Western Powers led by Great Britain did nothing, that annexation emboldened Adolf Hitler to invade Poland on September 1939 and thus triggered World War II. I don't know why Malacañang seems to always be fumbling these days. I mean, it could have used other historical references against China… but this one about Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia shouldn't have been made as it only angers the leadership of China.
In the first place, there's a world of difference between Germany then and China today. The fact alone that Europe belongs to one land mass, except for Britain, is a huge difference. While China has continued to threaten us, it simply just cannot bring troops in troopships and invade the Philippines even if it wanted to. It cannot and could not even invade its supposedly "rogue" province of Taiwan is proof that China's saber rattling cannot be translated into action. After all, this is a totally different world that we live in today as compared to the time of Adolf Hitler.
During World War II, satellite communication and observation was none existent. This is why when the Allied Forces planned and executed D-Day a.k.a. The Longest Day, Germany was caught unawares until the Allied Forces were already in Utah, Sword and Juno Beachheads. Today, thanks to the eyes of orbiting satellites, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would know if troops are being loaded into troopships by the hundreds of thousands, which can be exposed in the international news.
In response to Pres. Aquino's careless remarks, China's foreign ministry reacted with a statement saying "Pres. Aquino's attacks against China in which he senselessly compared his northern neighbor to Nazi Germany, exposed his true colors as an amateurish politician who was ignorant both of history and reality." Indeed, diplomats always use soft language when dealing with very ticklish issues, lest they get misunderstood. But then we are talking about PNoy Aquino who doesn't mince his words and will say whatever is in his mind. While this is good on certain issues, it doesn't augur well in the diplomatic front where people speak in friendlier diplomatic tones.
Perhaps Pres. PNoy is still smarting from the recent report that finally the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong is requiring all Philippine government officials to get a visa before they are allowed to enter Hong Kong because three years since that infamous Luneta Massacre in Aug.23, 2010, the Philippine government has not issued any apology for the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists. This is the problem with Pres. Aquino; he is so stubborn… that instead of moving forward and leaving behind that embarrassing issue, he has kept it alive for the last three years into his term.
At least, we thank the Hong Kong government for not making the visa a requirement for all Filipino citizens, but only for those people working in the Philippine government, many of whom go to Hong Kong for their shopping vacations. I know of many senators and congressmen whom I get to bump into whenever I visit Hong Kong. Now we shall be seeing less of these people. So if we want this issue to be resolved, we "The Boss" must demand that apology from PNoy.
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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com