Chinese laser, an act of war

One dawn this week, I was rudely awakened by a report that our country has raised a red alert obviously for our armed forces to observe. “Oh, here is another fake news” was my initial reaction. But, it came from a responsible citizen with a military background. He forwarded to me this Facebook post with a counsel for me to share it only with people with a non-warlike attitude. My FB share must have assumed that I was like him, more a dove than a hawk. I dutifully read the message and heeded his advice not to share indiscriminately the FB post. In fact, I forwarded it to no one.

Not wanting to misconstrue the implication of this report, I quickly looked for the meaning of red alert. Both my old copy of the dictionary and the internet carry a similar explanation. A red alert, accordingly, is that most urgent form of warning signaling that an enemy attack is believed imminent. On a lesser degree, it is a warning that a critical situation is developing or has occurred. The first definition is manifestly a military concept while the second views a non-belligerent situation.

That this alert was reportedly triggered by the sudden arrival of war materiel in Philippine soil from the United States of America, Australia, and Japan made sense. Word leaked that the convergence of military hardware in the Philippines is an inevitable consequence of the rising tension between the US and Communist China over Taiwan and the West Philippine Sea. Military assets in our country like the former US-operated Clark Air Base and the Olongapo Naval bases can be quick staging points in case of armed confrontation.

Only few months ago, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of US Congress visited Taiwan and met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in defiance of Chinese warnings for the trip not to take place. Such visit of an American leader was perceived as US support for Taiwan's de facto independence. After Pelosi left, an obviously-angered China launched games near the island it claims as its "sacred" territory. China reportedly fired missiles over Taipei, a first-time move. An indisputable act of belligerency, President Xi Jinping’s navy warships sailed across the median line of the Taiwan Strait and surrounded the island in what Taiwan's military said amounted to a practice "blockade".

I might not necessarily be a hawk but I silently applauded the visits to our country, in close succession, of US Vice President Kamala Harris and US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, III after an earlier arrival of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Chancellorsville, and USS Antietam, in the light of the recent bullying by this behemoth of a communist country named China against our seeming helplessness.

Last month, Communist China’s coast guard aimed a “military grade” laser at a Philippine Coast Guard vessel. The laser light might just have temporarily blinded the Filipino crew members, but in my book, what the Chinese did was nothing less than waging an undeclared war against us. Unfortunately, the Philippine leadership has no balls. Against such Chinese aggression, we could only issue a diplomatic note verbale. Why can’t our leaders do some positive act to protect our dignity? Who knows it is about the right time to invoke mutual defense treaty provisions!