Tempers flared between the Philippines and Vietnam one side and China on the other over fishing and oil explorations in contested waters.
A Philippine maritime and police boat arrested Filipino and Chinese fishermen for illegal catch of turtles, some of which are protected under Philippines laws. They were taken to Puerto Princesa where charges were filed. The state-run Xinhua news agency said Beijing demanded their immediate release and called on Manila to “take no more provocative action.”
Boats from Hanoi and Beijing slammed into each other as China National Offshore Oil Corp. built an oil rig close to the Paracel Islands on May 2, AP reported. The oil rig was escorted by a large flotilla of naval vessels. Beijing announced: No foreign ships would be allowed within a 3-mile radius of the $1 billion rig.
These won’t be the last clashes. So, look at the context. Most Filipinos never heard of Zhou Yongkang for example. Until seven months ago, he was one of China’s most powerful politicians. He doesn’t get a line in official media today. He is “presumed victim of the Orwellian security apparatus he once controlled,” writes BBC China editor Carrie Gracie.
Born to a poverty-stricken family, he got an engineering degree and clawed his way to control the vast internal security apparatus. Financial journal Caixin traced business interests which made the Zhous billionaires.
That changed when Xi Jinping became party leader, took up the Party and unleashed a campaign against graft. Zhou is his chosen tiger.
“This story is at the core of China’s stability and reform momentum,” BBC’s Gracie adds. “The fight to bring him down is the politics to watch.”
Political analyst Deng Yuwen says the reasons for taking on this tiger are: (a) to consolidate power and gain respect; (b) push reform among entrenched graft-tainted officials; (c) buffer up the Communist Party’s image.
“If [Xi] tries to fight Zhou to the death, Zhou will take him and the Party to the bottom,” he adds. “Xi has to leave Zhou a stake in keeping the Party afloat. That’s what they’re fighting over now.”
This makes sense, BBC Gracie adds. China’s one-party political cycle vests no electoral mandate. Taking out a rival with a corruption trial clears space for one’s own people and policies. Despite stunning growth, the present economic system is unsustainable. Removing state behemoths in key sectors, provides elbow room for reform.
“It’s hard to exaggerate the depth of public cynicism about the political class.” Senior officials plundered billions, many stashing fortunes in foreign assets.
The Standing Committee left each other’s families and business interests alone. They shiver at the show trials of their parents’ generation, how washing dirty linen in public leads to chaos. Xi smashed that pact. “And top families ask who is next?”
In March, prosecutors accused Lt. Gen. Gu Junshan with bribery, embezzlement, etc. It presented a first glimpse of what could be the biggest scandal to ever engulf the armed forces, the New York Times said.
Gu is accused of presiding over a land development racket that hoarded kickbacks, bought promotions, amassed expensive residences, which stocked “high-end liquor, gold bullion and cash.”
In internal speeches, Xi lashed against the “Gu Junshan phenomenon” of corruption. Dredge the soil that produced Gu Junshan. He threatened to bring down “large and small Gu Junshans”. The charges threaten “some of the most senior figures in the military.”
Xi’s campaign seeks to overhaul a military larded with patronage networks into a leaner fighting force. That would project power abroad and buttress party rule at home, while strengthening his own authority over the army. Thus, he regards the military as a bastion of support.
He blamed the collapse of the USSR in part on Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s losing control of the military.
“His implication was: ‘I’m taking charge of the military for real. I’m not going to be like the last two administrations, putting up with you as you bumble around,” an associate of Xi told the New York Times. Xi spends half a day each week at the Central Military Commission headquarters.
And that is what Southeast Asian countries will have to keep in mind when the next clash comes along.
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