The country is mired in poverty because of three basic problems: feudalism, the United States imperialism and bureaucrat capitalism. The eradication of these problems is the goal of the national democratic movement that red-taggers insist is a communist endeavor. But no, I am not going to talk about the difference between the communist goal and the mere national democratic or ND intention. Red-taggers tend to mix the two either by design or by ignorance. I am not going in that direction.
I would say, though, that I have matured enough to form my worldview without being bottled up in an old ideology. I have written months ago that while US imperialism remains to be one of the country’s three basic problems, I feel that China has become an imperialist upstart itself and is pushing for a redivision of the current setup dominated mainly by the US. Unfortunately for us, China is in Asia and seems intending to start the redivision of the world in our territory by grabbing the rocks and the seas that are supposed to be ours.
So it’s no longer just US imperialism that is one of our problems. China expansionism is now a problem. And it poses a bigger threat for us because China has been flexing its military might. Former President Rodrigo Duterte tried to draft a foreign policy that is supposedly independent but is actually anti-US and pro-China. That is the reason why China has been emboldened to drive away our military personnel and fisherfolk from territories it is now claiming vehemently as its own.
I say China only responds to military language, which is why I am leaning more and more to an “enlightened embrace” of the US, especially now that its government is being populated now by liberal democrats led by President Joe Biden. I therefore do not have much complaint with the resurrection by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or Edca that the Duterte government virtually abandoned.
Bongbong, like his father, the real Macoy, is leaning more towards the US even if Marcos Jr. is still friendly with China. Nationalists may take exception to that stance, but it is better than the one embraced by his predecessor. It is an improvement, I should say, from the previous “out and out pro-China stance.” Which only means that the days of China manipulating the governments of nations in Southeast Asia are on the wane. And that industrialized countries in the Pacific are uniting because of their fear of the Chinese threat.
This time around, China can no longer rely much on Russia and Vladimir Putin as they are being weakened by the war they are waging against Ukraine. With Russia marginalized, Xi Jinping can no longer be confident in flexing its military might against the Philippines and Taiwan. And with Marcos being pushed by circumstances to the side of the US, China can no longer bully its neighbors.
We are in a new phase of international relations. There is therefore a need to rethink a bit the imperialist theory we formulated in the 1960s.