SeaLight

Is there a Strategic Sympathy in the 🇵🇭 #Philippines from the 2nd Trump Admin? 🇺🇸

Last July, SeaLight Executive Director @GordianKnotRay was interviewed by @RichHeydarian's The View From Manila. In this clip, Heydarian asked if there is strategic sympathy in the Philippines from the 2nd Trump Administration.

Listen to the answers from our Executive Director below. 👇

🚨 BREAKING: Head of Philippine Chinese Education Research Center tells Chinese-language schools to promote China's political goals

On November 6, Manila-based PCERC Chairman Huang Duanming (a.k.a. James Wang) called directly for the Philippines' Chinese-language schools to commit themselves to advancing several Chinese Communist Party political goals.

According to a post on PCERC's own Facebook page, which were also printed in several Chinese-language news outlets, Chairman Huang explicitly called for every Chinese school in the Philippines to:

1. "Uphold the One-China Principle" (秉承一个中国的原则). This term represents Beijing's hard-line position that Taiwan has always been part of the PRC, and is the basis for its mandate to "reunify" with Taiwan, by force if necessary (unlike the Philippines' more flexible One-China Policy).

2. "Add bricks and tiles to Belt and Road construction" (为一带一路建设…添砖加瓦). The Belt and Road is Xi Jinping's signature program for extending China's economic and political reach abroad, and was written into the CCP's constitution in 2017.

3. "Jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind" (共建人类命运共同体). This is Xi's slogan for a world order reshaped to suit Beijing, written into the Party's constitution in 2017 and China's state constitution in 2018.

4. "Fulfill its responsibility to the cause of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" (为中华民族伟大复兴事业尽到自己的责任). This "great rejuvenation" is the CCP's overarching national goal and Xi's "Chinese Dream," targeted for 2049.

Huang gave this charge at an awards ceremony for the Chinese Ambassador's Education Fund. Ambassador Jing Quan then added that the attendees should not fear the recent "smears" against Chinese-language education.

That has been the Embassy's line for weeks. In October, Jing called it "complete nonsense" to describe Chinese-language education as "united front work" or "political infiltration." The Embassy has excoriated critics like Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and SeaLight Director Ray Powell, claiming that the alarms they raised "forced more than 180 Chinese teachers out".

In other words, according to the Embassy the problem isn't the state-sponsored United Front work being carried out by the PCERC, it is those who are shining a light on it.

Huang's words echo the CCP's United Front Work Regulations, which govern how the Party wants to build support beyond its ranks -- and explicitly among ethnic Chinese around the world. These regulations name unification, rejuvenation and the "community with a shared future" as goals of its work with "overseas Chinese".

PCERC is no stranger to that system. For decades it worked closely with China's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which the Party folded into its United Front Work Department in 2018. That November, a visiting United Front official heard reports from PCERC's department heads and pledged to "fully support" the center.

Beijing, its Embassy and United Front-linked groups like PCERC can't have it both ways. They can't urge Chinese-language schools to advance CCP's political goals, then cry "smear" when someone points it out.

🇨🇳Beijing has Perfected Gaslighting by Propaganda

Earlier today, SeaLight Executive Director @GordianKnotRay Powell was interviewed by Taiwan Talks to discuss the recent ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting and the US-ASEAN Defense Framework,

Listen to our Director's interview here.

Act Now on 🇨🇳#China's Ambitions Before It's Too Late

Deterrence and provocation is like two sides of the same coin. But failing to take proactive steps today to integrate alliances and secure regional stability risks far greater instability tomorrow.

Dr. Ely Ratner (@elyratner), former 🇺🇸 U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs under the Biden administration, sits down with SeaLight Executive Director @GordianKnotRay on @IndoPacPodcast with host James Carouso.

Dr. Ratner emphasized the need for the United States and its allies to respond to China's hegemonic ambitions. While this comes with short-term diplomatic and economic tensions, acting now is crucial to prevent a major crisis in the future and to maintain long-term regional stability.

Watch the full interview here: youtu.be/_6BVyVuHIec

🚨NEW from @GordianKnotRay on WPS Dispatch
Sea of Pacification: 🇨🇳#China’s political war for the West Philippine Sea 🇵🇭

Ambassador Jing Quan: China "may easily win" if it chose force. "But no, we will not choose force and we love peace," so Filipinos should "feel fortunate that you have a neighbor like China."

Colonial 🇪🇸Spain had a word for this kind of "peace". In 1573, Philip II ordered that conquests be called "pacifications". Even 🇺🇸America had ran its own pacification campaign when it replaced Spain as the #Philippines' colonial government in 1898.

In a new piece for WPS Dispatch, Ray looks at how Beijing is now running its own pacification play in Manila focused on consolidating its control over the West Philippine Sea.

Understanding Beijing's rhetoric and how it seeks to reward sympathizers, discredit critics and bring Filipinos to accept the new imperial order is key to building a long-term resistance to China's attempted conquest of the West Philippine Sea. 👇