China’s $100,000 aid ‘measly,’ judged by its Phl mining take

Talk about fair-weather friend. “As hundreds of thousands of Filipinos struggled to find food, water, shelter and the bodies of loved ones in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, China quickly dipped into its world-leading $3.7 trillion of currency reserves and came up with … all of $100,000.” That Bloomberg news lead captured the general recoil at how the world’s second-largest economy treats an Asian neighbor. Other headlines stated “cheapskate,” “paltry,” “miserly” and, in one mainland-Chinese daily, “ungenerous.”

Beijing could not have missed the effects of history’s strongest ever typhoon to make landfall. Global networks had tracked Haiyan’s ruin of the Philippines, where three-fourths of families have Chinese blood. Undeterred by Philippine mountain ranges, the storm crossed over the sea to hit China. One drowned and seven went missing in Hainan, and many areas were flooded in Guangxi provinces. Beijing came upon a chance to show amity and soft power. Yet it chose to be petty, due to sea disputes with Manila. With trade overshooting $36 billion in 2012, China often calls the Philippines “partner.”

In the first hours of Filipinos’ distress, the world sprang to the rescue. The US rushed in an aircraft carrier group laden with emergency crews and $20-million relief. Britain, Japan, and Korea sent trucks, food, and cash of, in turn, $16 million, $10 million, and $5 million. Donations poured in from Australia, $28 million; European Union, $17 million; Vatican, $4 million; Indonesia, $2 million; and Taiwan, which China labels its province, $200,000.

Private outfits across the globe gave too, among the first Coca Cola, $2.5 million; NBA, $500,000; Journey rock band, $350,000; and L.A. Lakers, $150,000. Media outlets compared the amounts to China’s. Stung by criticisms Beijing later announced to follow up with $1.4 million in tents and blankets. By then the initial donors had doubled or tripled their pledges, with still more states, heeding the UN plea for $301 million for preliminary rehab. News persisted that China’s additional aid was but half the $2.7 million from the Swedish furniture maker Ikea.

Manila graciously thanked Beijing’s aid. The nine million stricken folk need all the help they can get. Chinese think tanks rued the ruin to China’s reputation as Asia’s fastest rising power.

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Haiyan’s destruction is both natural and man-made. Its 320-kph winds toppled substandard structures, and 15-foot waves lashed coastal towns denuded of mangrove forest cover. Although most vulnerable to climate change-induced weather disturbances, the Philippines goes on despoiling its natural wealth. China plays a big role in the Philippines’ environmental ravage.

In Leyte province, worst hit by Haiyan, China’s Nicua Mining Corp. for years has been sucking up black sand from the beaches, for magnetite. Overturned in the process are corals, around which fish and mollusks feed and spawn. Displaced fishermen have taken to dynamiting, and making charcoal out of felled mangroves, compounding the environmental ruin.

Foreigners are forbidden from mining in the Philippines, except for special financial-technical assistance. But Nicua was able to skirt the ban by buying out a local concessionaire in Macarthur town. Too, Filipinos and foreigners alike are barred from seaside black sand mining. But the giant Chinese miner was allowed because its site supposedly is a farm far inland. From there it financed poor coastal dwellers in other towns to gather black sand, small-scale. It then took over them, hauling sand onto barges, large-scale. Chinese miners do not play by the rules, employing bribery to extract and export Philippine minerals illegally.

Magnetite from black sand sustains China’s steel, telecoms, and medical and audio equipment industries. Because angry locals disrupt Nicua’s harmful operations, more Chinese miners poach black sand elsewhere. In Cagayan, Ilocos, Pangasinan, and Zambales in Luzon, they routinely pay off local officials to look the other way as they ship away the mineral. Lawmen last Aug. raided such a Chinese operation, of Huaxia Trading & Mining Corp. in Cagayan. Beijing’s embassy bailed out the 18 Chinese poachers, whereupon they sailed for home. China’s Lian Xing Stone Carving Co. remains, illicitly burrowing sand in Luzon.

In Homonhon Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar, first to be hit by Haiyan, Peng Cheng Metallic Resources Inc. mines nickel and chromite. If magnetite operations ruin seashores, nickel-chromite mines denude forests and muddy the rivers. Mountains are leveled to extract the ore, for loading in bulk cargo vessels to China.

Filipinos may mine under production-sharing agreements with the government. Peng Cheng elbowed its way into Homonhon five years ago by buying into the local miner. In payolas, mining regulators and town officials ignore islanders’ pleas that the zone long had been awarded to them for pasturing. Also into ferronickel in Eastern Samar is China’s Rock Check Steel Co. Ltd.

Nickel and chromite too feed China’s steel mills. In Zambales, three Chinese miners have permits from national authorities for nickel in Botolan town down south. But Wei Wei Group, Jiangxi Rare Earth Metals and Tungsten Group, and Nihao Mineral Resources are insatiable. Via five subsidiaries, they use 93 “small-scale” Filipino miners as fronts to extract ore up north in Sta. Cruz and Masinloc, and in adjacent Infanta, Pangasinan. The governor of Zambales had signed the “small-scale” mining permits all in one day in 2011.

Chinese zinc, gold, silver, copper, iron, cobalt, manganese, chromite, and nickel mines abound in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The five in northern Zambales are most injurious. Hillsides have been laid barren, rivers and coastal waters muddied. Dust from extractions and emissions from thousands of dump trucks blacken the air. Sta. Cruz and Masinloc townsfolk suffer higher than national average incidences of intestinal and lung ailments. One of the five fronts, LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc., runs a port in Sta. Cruz from which four shiploads of ore depart weekly.

Beijing’s sea rows with Manila and Hanoi are all about mineral and marine wealth. Ironically, Manila abets China’s virtual invasion of mines within Philippine land territory: Leyte, Samar, Luzon. Flourishing from Philippine metal extractions, China’s steel and related industries build warships, weapons, and surveillance systems to grab Philippine shoals. Chinese vessels have fenced off Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) off Zambales, where Hainanese launches catch more than the $100,000-Chinese aid, daily in food fish and corals. Jiangxi Group also mines nickel and cobalt in Palawan, hard hit too by Haiyan, and where China is itching to grab yet more banks.

On record China derives from the Philippine $4 billion of minerals per year. Nickel ore alone is 13 million metric tons a year. The figure could double if the illegal Chinese mines are counted. They deprive the Philippines of taxes and royalties. And that’s no way to treat a friend.

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