US Filipino group to launch anti-Chinese demonstrations
Staff Reporter 2013-07-18 15:05
Filipino activists rally outside the Chinese embassy in Washington DC on May 11 last year at the time of the Scarborough Shoal standoff. (Photo/CNS)
A Filipino-American organization based in New York will launch anti-Chinese demonstrations in the United States and the Philippines on July 24 to protest the actions of the People's Liberation Army in the disputed South China Sea, reports the Global Times, a newspaper published under the auspices of China's ruling Communist Party.
US Pinoys for Good Governance said demonstrators will gather outside the Chinese embassies in Washington DC and Manila, and also the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, according to the Manila-based Inquirer. The organization charged the People's Liberation Army with pursuing and threatening Philippine fishermen and encroaching on minimally guarded or unattended Philippine reefs, islets and shoals in the South China Sea over last two years.
"We are called upon as citizens of the world where our Mother Country is being harassed by China to give up the wealth of the seas that belong to the Philippines," said Loida Nicolas Lewis, chairperson of the organization. "People of good faith individually have to answer the cry of help by our Inang Bayan (Mother Country)." Representatives from eight Filipino-American organizations will also attend the rally outside the United Nations on July 24.
Led by Rodel Rodis, the president of the US Pinoys for Good Governance, a similar rally will also be held outside the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. "Filipinos all over the world must join the protest and get the world to notice that China has been invading the Philippines' strategic shoals to claim the rich natural resources beneath the West Philippine Sea," said Rodis, referring to the name for the South China Sea recently adopted by Manila. "Should China succeed in this unfathomable act, it will become second only to Saudi Arabia as source of massive petroleum and gas deposits, instead of the Philippines."
As Vietnam also has maritime territorial disputes with China, the US Pinoys for Good Governance is considering inviting Vietnamese-Americans to join the protest as well. The Inquirer said Vietnamese-Americans still remember that the Philippines was initially the only nation in Asia to welcome Vietnamese refugees after the Communist takeover.
After a standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the area of Scarborough Shoal last April, an anti-Chinese rally was launched by Filipinos around the world on May 11 2012.
Zhuang Guotu, dean of the Research School of Southeast Asian Studies, told the Global Times that this year's rally is likely to be larger than the one held last year. Since Benigno Aquino III was re-elected as president of the Philippines, Zhuang said this shows he has a popular mandate to take a tough line on China over the dispute.
