Pirates of South China Sea
By Colonel K N Das
Some days back Chinese coast guard men attacked Philippines naval personnel’s positioned on a rusting ship wreck, stuck on ground near Second Thomas Shaol Island in South China Sea.
Chinese have drawn Nine Dash line, claiming a large area of South China Sea for the first time in its long and lethargic history as Chinese territory since ancient times!
Chinese have a habit of filling their history with mysteries, which is rather very frequent these days. Chinese are known to have been a very subjective history writers, specially so in the present communist occupied of Main Land.
As a matter of fact Chinese were one people who never ventured in to sea. They were scarred of sea and the sea pirates who operated from the Japanese Isles in north to Hainan in the south along the chain of islands that lie east of Main Land. Their fear was so great that they dug almost 2500 KM long cannal along its cost line, joining the two great rivers, Yangtze in the south to Hang Ho in the north. This was to keep their transportation materials, specially of rice to the northern millet region of China, out of reach of the sea pirates.th
Till the Mongol conquest of China, Formosa, what is Taiwan now a days, had hardly any Han presence. If they were there, they were either fugitives from the law or marooned boatmen. Till that time the island was occupied by aboriginals of Malay origins who chewed betel leaves and ate from plantain leaves and wore batik print cotton.
The great Admiral Cheng Ho during Ming Dynasty was a Turkish eunuch and so were most of his sailors of Turkish origin. Han were few who were mostly sea sick! Literati class of that time were so annoyed with the seafaring Admiral that they literally burnt all the boats once he returned from his over hipped voyage and fleet was finished for good.
Mongol rulers of China raised naval forces with aim to capture the Japanese Isles but their endeavors could not succeed.
The Manchu rulers of China did not make much pretence of naval mastery and what ever little floats that they could muster ended, once the British gunboats came into action.
The Japanese navy dominated the seas around China in the modern times almost till the Second World War, till they were defeated.
In recent time China has increased its naval assets. It has more ships than even the Americans now and is adding on at great speed.
Now that it has assets, then it has to show it off as well! And that what China is doing.
The Chinese coast guards were carrying medieval weapons during their recent attack, sowrds, axes, spears and rods. Next time they should wear the old attire of the pirates of the past as well to add colours to the chaos!
All these exposes Chinese pretence of calling itself a civilisational state. A term that got currency in early nineties by bulk of American writers, when they were wooing the Chinese, in their phase of honey moon with the Han, after the break up of Soveit Union!
China hardly fits into that elite bracket of a civilisational states. Yes it is a Super State as was the Third Reich under the Adolf Hitler or the Soveit Union under Stalin.
It has selected Philippines, being relatively small with limited means.The silence of ASEAN countries is very disturbing. Chinese Nine Dash line has territories of many ASEAN countries coming within the Chinese claim line. Are they waiting for a fate like Philippines to fall on them one by one in near future?
Philippines has some treaty signed with the Americans. The Americans are equally non reactive and almost silent.
A poor Philipino sailor has lost a thumb. Do the Americans and the ASEAN countries want to wait till the Philipinos loose some necks?
It’s very disturbing time indeed.
The world and the various global institutions must take note and get vocal at least to begin with in general and Treaty bond ally America and ASEAN countries in particular, before it is too late.
