The bellicose China

Juan Apolinario C. Reyes

 The developments in western Philippine seas are worrisome. It is not the possibility that war could erupt which should trouble us, it is the uncertainty about how China will respond which should. The possibility US will step into this arena shouldn't be doubted.

Nobody in the world doubts that US uses war to pursue her foreign policy. But the democratic tradition of the United States tempers her bellicosity. This makes US policy predictable. But the same cannot be said about China.

Political power in China is concentrated in one political party. In fact, the whole of Chinese military organization is simply an extension of the political party, it is their armed wing. Think about the NPA (New People's Army) of the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines). Politics in China is exercised as dictatorship. It's dictatorship of one party.

Contemporary history gives us no comfort when we think about how dictatorships behave. The Nazi party of Germany in WWII, Stalin and the Community Party of the Soviet Union, Pol Pot in Cambodia. Absolute power, it seems, renders those who wield it "psychologically" unstable. They are wont to imagine enemies. They behave asymmetrically, that is, they behave without proportion to the circumstances that bring about challenging situations. This makes China truly worrisome.

But on second thought, "psychologically" unstable states destroy themselves in the process. Where is Nazi now? Where is the Soviet Union now? We all know what became of Cambodia because of Pol Pot's regime.

Through war China will destroy herself. War will reveal her fractures. It will expose a gamut of social and economic vulnerabilities. China will be destroyed from within.

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