Filipinos rally against China in Manila
(NVONews.Com) Just after China launched deep water oil rigging in South China Sea hundreds of Filipinos on Friday rallied outside the Chinese embassy in Manila to protest against Beijing’s alleged flexing of the muscles against Philippines over territorial disputes in the region.
In fact China is trying to bully other nations of the region too, for example, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. They all have overlapping claims to the and China has disputes with almost all these countries.
Filipinos have planned similar rallies in Australia, New York, Canada, Hong Kong and other places.
Filipino groups in the United States, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Thailand, South Africa, Germany and the United Arab Emirates have pledged support for the activity.
As the rally was planned earlier a large posse of policemen were posted outside the embassy. Incidentally, the rallyists, which included a former police officer and town mayor tried to burn several Chinese flags at the start of the protest. But the anti-riot police prevented them from doing so.
When policemen tried to seize the flags from him the former cop shouted “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”. “China is bullying us!”
The rallyists sang the national anthem of the country and danced to the tune of Kung Fu Fighting during the protest.
There is a deadlock between China and Philippines over Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippines’ northwestern coast. China also claims the shoal. The stand-off began on April 10 when two Chinese ships blocked a Philippine navy warship whose personnel were preparing to arrest crew members of eight Chinese fishing boats for alleged poaching.
As this crisis was on the United States navy, along with the Phillipines navy, held an exercise in the region.
China and Philippines have since stationed government vessels at the shoal, which is 230 kilometres west of Zambales, a province of Philippines, and 870 kilometres away from the nearest coast of China in Hainan province.
A couple of days ago China had cautioned its citizens in the Philippines of risks to their security amid mounting anti-Chinese sentiment because of the dispute.
China claims the entire South China Sea, which straddles key shipping lanes in the region and is believed to be rich in resources.
Manila has urged the international community to take a stand on the dispute, warning that Beijing’s claim could be a potential threat to freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce.
Travel agencies in China have earlier suspended tour packages to the Philippines, and even warned their nationals residing in the country from going out of their houses ahead of the protest rally.
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