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China Issues Diplomatic Protest Over Philippines' Engagement With Taiwan

China Issues Diplomatic Protest Over Philippines' Engagement With Taiwan

The Diplomat5 days ago
China has lodged 'stern representations' to the Philippines over its recent engagement with Taiwan, according to the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, summoned Philippine Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz to express 'strong dissatisfaction' with Manila's recent 'negative moves' concerning Taiwan, as well as other maritime and security issues, the Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
'Bloc politics and camp confrontation reflect a Cold War mentality, which runs counter to the trend of the times and is unwelcome among regional countries,' Lin reportedly added.
Such protests have become a commonplace of China-Philippines relations over the past few years, as the two nations have clashed in disputed parts of the South China Sea. While the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not specify the exact incidents that triggered the protest, it 'reaffirmed its longstanding positions on Taiwan and the South China Sea,' the Tribune reported.
This suggests that the protest may have been related to a Washington Post report published on July 14, which stated that the Philippines was 'quietly ramping up both formal and informal engagement' with Taiwan, including on security. Citing government officials, defense analysts and diplomats, the report stated that security cooperation 'is further along than publicly disclosed.'
Since opening diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1975, the Philippines has officially adhered to a 'One China Policy,' which 'recognizes the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China' and 'fully understands and respects the position of the Chinese Government that there is but one China and that Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory.'
However, as Taiwan has become the focus of growing tension between China and the United States, and relations between China and the Philippines have deteriorated over the South China Sea, the Philippines has begun more actively to engage it 'unofficially' on an economic and diplomatic level.
A Washington Post report suggests this cooperation also has an increasingly robust security dimension. It revealed that the Philippine Coast Guard had recently conducted patrols with its Taiwanese counterpart in the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from Batanes, the Philippines' northernmost province. It said that Taiwan also sent navy and marine corps personnel to observe the Kamandag joint exercise led by the United States and Philippine marines. It said that Taiwanese personnel 'did not officially participate,' but were involved in tabletop planning and 'watched in real time as cooperation unfolded among the U.S. allies.' The Post report quoted a Taiwanese government adviser who said that 'our security and military cooperation with the Philippines is going to get closer and closer.'
China has protested every hint of growing closeness between Manila and Taipei. In January 2024, China's government summoned the Philippine ambassador and warned Manila 'not to play with fire' after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. congratulated Lai Ching-te on his election as Taiwan's president.
However, the increased engagement with Taiwan, like the Philippines' growing security harmonization with partners like the U.S., Japan, and Australia, is hard to disentangle from China's own policy in the South China Sea, which has involved more frequent and intense incursions into the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. Over the past few years, the two nations have engaged in growing clashes in which the China Coast Guard has allegedly rammed and fired high-pressure water cannons against Philippine coast guard and fisheries bureau vessels.
For this reason, the Philippines has been entitled to negotiate the scope of its relationship with Taiwan, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told the Post. He added that 'previous attempts to appease its powerful neighbor have gone nowhere,' in the newspaper's paraphrase. He added, 'It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan's security will not affect us.'
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China's Joint Patrols on the Mekong River: Much Less Than Meets the Eye
China's Joint Patrols on the Mekong River: Much Less Than Meets the Eye

The Diplomat

time5 hours ago

  • The Diplomat

China's Joint Patrols on the Mekong River: Much Less Than Meets the Eye

On October 5, 2011, thirteen Chinese sailors were found bound, blindfolded, and executed, their bodies dumped in the Mekong River near northern Thailand. The scene was grisly. Two Chinese cargo ships, the Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, were later discovered with nearly a million methamphetamine tablets onboard. Within days, Chinese authorities blamed the massacre on Naw Kham, a drug lord operating in the Golden Triangle, launching a full-scale manhunt. Authorities captured Kham, brought him to China, tried him, and then executed him by lethal injection in 2013. The state broadcast the execution on national television. A murkier truth is buried under that official story. Thai investigators – and eventually, Chinese ones, too – uncovered that nine Thai soldiers from an elite anti-narcotics unit carried out the killings. They orchestrated the massacre after a protection racket went sideways, then allegedly tried to frame Kham by planting the drugs. And yet the Thai soldiers faced no charges. They walked free. The Chinese public got the closure of televised justice, but the men who pulled the triggers? Nothing. Why would China, a country famously assertive about protecting its citizens overseas, allow the real perpetrators to go unpunished? Following the murders, China halted all shipping on the Mekong and scrambled to reassert control. Within weeks, it convened an emergency summit with Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar (the three countries touching the Golden Triangle) and rolled out a bold new initiative: joint river patrols. The plan, as Beijing envisioned it, would have Chinese boats and personnel operating across borders, patrolling shoulder-to-shoulder with forces from neighboring countries. However, that did not happen. Instead of combined patrols, the countries agreed to coordinate separate national patrols – each country sticking to its own waters, handing off responsibility at the border like a security relay race. Why was China willing to accept a watered-down arrangement that falls far short of the sweeping authority it initially sought? The answer lies in the politics of perception. Beijing did not need full operational control to declare victory. It needed a story to tell: one that showed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responding swiftly to threats, protecting its citizens, and exerting regional leadership. The joint patrols delivered that narrative, even if they didn't deliver much in the way of actual security. This is not just a story about the Mekong. It's about how China manages its image as a rising power: balancing ambition with optics and pressure with pragmatism. It is about how smaller states resist by leaning on sovereignty and domestic legal barriers and how the CCP turns even partial wins into full-blown victories for domestic consumption. It also touches on the limits of performative security: what happens when symbolism outweighs substance and whether those symbols can evolve into something more. How the Patrols Work Launched in December 2011, the Chinese presented the patrols as a breakthrough in regional security cooperation. But what followed was far less integrated or muscular than the headlines suggested. The joint patrols are merely a cooperative effort among the four countries. The 'jointness' of the operation lies primarily in branding, and in a Combined Operations Center in Guanlei, China, which facilitates limited intelligence sharing. The patrols occur roughly once a month. The 155th joint patrol was held from July 22 to 25, 2025, according to China's official media. 'Seven vessels and more than 100 law enforcement personnel from the four countries traveled over 700 kilometers during the patrol, which lasted four days and three nights,' Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported. The scale can vary; at times these operations involve thousands of personnel and hundreds of boats. According to Chinese state media, the latest joint patrol involved three Chinese law enforcement vessels traveling south from Yunnan, while boats from Laos and Myanmar also departed separately from local ports, 'bound for a pre-determined area.' There was no mention of Thailand sending a boat to participate in the patrol itself, although it hosted 'an information exchange meeting' in Chiang Saen during the operation. A 2021 People's Daily article reported that over the past decade, law enforcement agencies from China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand have conducted over 180 joint missions, cracking down on more than 36,000 drug-related crimes and seizing nearly 137 metric tons of drugs. However, this reporting appears to aggregate all enforcement actions across the four countries, not just those actions conducted during the official joint patrols. For example, other official press coverage indicated that, as of July 2022, only 119 joint patrols had occurred, suggesting that the larger figure of 'over 180' joint missions includes separate operations. These numbers are subject to scrutiny. One report in People's Daily claimed that police vessels patrol the Mekong for 25 days a month, contradicting other reports that suggest typical Chinese patrols only last for approximately four days. These discrepancies suggest that Chinese press reports conflate individual countries' achievements with those of the joint operations, potentially overstating the level of multilateral coordination and the effectiveness of the patrols themselves. Most of the publicly available figures come from Chinese government sources or state-run media with little independent verification of the patrols' impact. The persistence of issues like meth smuggling, armed gangs, and illegal border crossings in Golden Triangle suggests that the patrols have done more to showcase regional cooperation than to deliver security. Understanding the political and institutional context of these patrols further complicates the picture. The joint patrols have primarily used China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels, which historically operated under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). In 2013, however, the CCG was unified as a national force, and in 2018, the CCP transferred it under the command of the People's Armed Police, which now reports directly to the Central Military Commission (CMC), reflecting broader trends toward militarization and centralized control under Xi Jinping. In 2024, China introduced a new class of fourth generation ('Gen-4') patrol vessels specifically designed for Mekong River operations. These vessels were commissioned by the Yunnan provincial public security department, but it remains unclear whether the MPS directly operates them, or if they fall under the CMC command structure. All of this raises a question: If these patrols are not clearly effective, why are they still happening? The answer may lie less in security strategy than in storytelling: who these patrols are meant to reassure and what narrative they are meant to sustain. Bargaining on the River When the CCP first proposed joint Mekong patrols after the 2011 massacre, it did not envision the compartmentalized structure that exists today. Beijing wanted full combined operations: Chinese boats patrolling seamlessly across borders. This would have extended Chinese operational reach throughout a huge portion of mainland Southeast Asia – an unprecedented level of regional access under the banner of public safety. But China didn't get that. Thailand pushed back first, citing a constitutional requirement that any foreign military or law enforcement presence in Thai waters requires parliamentary approval. More importantly, it invoked sovereignty. Allowing armed Chinese vessels into Thai territory, even as part of a cooperative patrol, was a step too far. Laos and Myanmar, while less assertive, followed Thailand's lead. The result was the diluted arrangement. It is telling that China accepted this outcome despite its regional and global power. In theory, Beijing had the economic and political leverage to press harder. Why didn't it? For Chinese domestic audiences, the appearance of CCP action was more important than actual operational control. Beijing could still frame the patrols as a win: Chinese law enforcement was now patrolling the Mekong, coordinating with neighbors, and 'making the river safe again.' Regionally, China could appear as a cooperative partner, not an aggressive bully. In a diplomatic environment where China constantly claims to respect sovereignty, strong-arming its neighbors into accepting cross-border patrols would have undercut that messaging. Importantly, the smaller states demonstrated that they were not entirely powerless. By invoking legal barriers and sovereignty norms, they forced China to scale back its ambitions without directly confronting it. In doing so, they revealed an important truth: that even asymmetric relationships allow for resistance. Security as Spectacle The Mekong River patrols may not have much operational impact, but that doesn't mean they're unimportant. They serve a different purpose entirely: to showcase China as a capable and responsible regional leader without demanding much in the way of actual risk, cost, or power-sharing. This is hardly an isolated case. Across a range of domains, China has leaned heavily on symbolic or low-stakes forms of international cooperation to reinforce its status. One of the clearest parallels is China's naval deployment to the Gulf of Aden. These missions signal China's willingness to contribute to global security, but they have involved minimal risk, little operational coordination with other navies, and almost no combat engagement. Still, Chinese state media celebrates these deployments as a sign of national prestige, showing off the navy's blue-water capabilities and broadcasting its arrival as a global maritime power. The Mekong patrols fit neatly into this pattern. Their very structure – sequential, national, heavily publicized – prioritizes optics over integration. China's message is clear: we are here, we are active, and we are leading. And for the CCP's domestic audience, that message matters more than the fine print. Southeast Asian countries seem to understand and participate in this performance. By allowing just enough cooperation to help China craft its narrative, they can extract benefits – be it economic aid, diplomatic goodwill, or stability – without surrendering too much autonomy. Playing Along If the Mekong patrols are largely symbolic, why do Southeast Asian states participate at all? The answer isn't blind obedience or passive acceptance. It's strategy. For the other countries involved, the patrols offer a way to manage China's ambitions, access economic and diplomatic benefits, and maintain the illusion of cooperation on their own terms. Thailand, for example, walks a tightrope between its U.S. alliance and its deepening economic ties with China. Bangkok gets the best of both worlds by participating in the patrols while blocking Chinese boats from entering Thai waters. It avoids confrontation, earns diplomatic goodwill, and limits Chinese intrusion. The patrols become a form of controlled cooperation: just enough to keep China satisfied, not enough to surrender sovereignty. At times, Thailand chooses not to send a boat at all, as evidenced by the July 2025 patrol – apparently with no consequences. Laos, which is far more dependent on Beijing, faces different incentives. With Chinese-backed railways, hydropower dams, and debt financing shaping its economy, Vientiane has little leverage to resist Chinese overtures outright. Participating in joint patrols, however modest, offers a way to stay in Beijing's good graces and ensure continued investment. For Laos, the patrols are less about security and more about signaling alignment with its most important benefactor. Myanmar's calculus is unclear, especially after the 2021 coup, but it follows a similar logic. The junta's isolation from the West makes China one of the few partners it can still count on. Security cooperation, including on the Mekong, helps reinforce that relationship. Even amid domestic turmoil, Myanmar's participation buys a degree of diplomatic protection (and possibly arms or infrastructure deals) without ceding meaningful control. In short, each country has its own reason for supporting China's performance. And they all understand the same thing: letting China look like a leader costs less than letting China act like one. Conclusion: Substance by Other Means? The Mekong joint patrols appear to be little more than a symbolic gesture – a meticulously staged pageant with limited operational depth. In that way, it's the decade-long version of the Naw Kham execution. The Thai soldiers truly responsible for the 2011 massacre were never held accountable, but by executing Kham Beijing walked away with a win it could sell at home. That is the real currency here: not enforcement capability, but narrative. For domestic audiences, the CCP showed swift state action. For the region, they symbolized Chinese leadership in a 'win-win' security framework. For China, that was enough. And for the Mekong states, cooperating – just enough – helped unlock economic partnerships, avoid direct confrontation, and maintain sovereignty. In this way, the patrols became a kind of regional theater in which each actor plays a part. China performs leadership. Its neighbors perform an alignment. Together, they sustain the illusion of progress. In an international order where hard power looms large but outright conflict remains costly, symbolic gestures can do real diplomatic work. The Mekong patrols may never stop the drug trade. But they've already succeeded in something else: offering all parties a way to act out stability without having to achieve it. In a region where form often trumps substance, that may be the most effective outcome of all.

International Labor Standards: The Missing Link in China-US Trade Negotiations
International Labor Standards: The Missing Link in China-US Trade Negotiations

The Diplomat

time7 hours ago

  • The Diplomat

International Labor Standards: The Missing Link in China-US Trade Negotiations

The China-U.S. trade war is often reduced to a dispute over cheap exports, but the real fault line runs deeper. China has built a powerful industrial strategy on the backs of low-cost labor and state-backed incentives, successfully attracting advanced multinationals and bringing their technology and supply chain resources into the country. While the United States outsourced its basic manufacturing, China turned so-called 'low-end' jobs into a launchpad for dominating high-value industries. This strategy has worked. BYD, once a low-tier battery maker, is now a top global electric vehicle manufacturer, beating Tesla in worldwide EV sales. Apple, for its part, poured billions into China – not just in assembly lines, but in R&D. As journalist Peter McGee documented in 'Apple and the Transformation of Chinese Manufacturing,' Apple's strict quality and engineering standards forced Chinese suppliers to level up. What began as low-cost outsourcing became a sophisticated, self-reinforcing innovation engine. This has become a key driver of innovation and global competitiveness in China's manufacturing sector. As the Chinese government aligned its labor policies with the profit motives of U.S. corporations, Washington debated tariffs. All this while, companies continue to rely on China's cheap labor to meet shareholder demands. China, in turn, gained leverage: any disruption to this arrangement would threaten the survival of many global brands. This entanglement has become so tight that it indirectly but powerfully shapes U.S. policy toward China, through the commercial interests and logistical dependence of American companies operating in China. But there's a darker cost buried in the foundations of this success. For over two decades, China Labor Watch has uncovered systemic labor issues in the supply chains of major U.S. and global brands operating in China. These are not isolated incidents, but are structural features of a model that exploits rural migrant workers, tolerates weak enforcement of labor laws, and prohibits independent unions. Global companies continue to profit from it. This exploitation does not just serve short-term commercial interests. It underpins China's ambitious vision of the 'great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' and advancing its global hegemonic strategy of technological dominance and leadership. Even as parts of manufacturing move to Southeast Asia, those operations remain closely tethered to Chinese supply chains. The low-cost advantage remains China's unshakable core. If the U.S. wants to reduce its dependency and rebalance trade on fairer terms, it cannot ignore the labor question. It must confront China's labor governance head-on – even if doing so challenges American business interests in the short term. The Chinese government, for all its claims in its Constitution and the Communist Party's charter that China is a 'socialist state' that is 'led by the working class,' has built its economic ascent on the backs of exploited workers. While it publicly touts its commitment to workers' well-being, it has never admitted to the systemic nature of labor violations. Instead, the party-state continues to sidestep the issue through an official narrative of 'striving for workers' well-being,' and blame is deflected to multinational corporations. Many Chinese citizens, including some government officials, genuinely believe that the CCP's system can improve workers' lives. The structural roots of labor exploitation, inherent in the party's governance and economic model, are obscured. Labor rights activism thus becomes a sore subject for the government. To them, it is not just about a call for better wages or working conditions, but a direct challenge to the CCP's self-image. It exposes the ideological gulf between its promises and the lived experience of Chinese workers. If party leaders deny the existence of labor exploitation, they are telling an outright lie that will anger many workers; if they address the issue, it legitimizes that reality is at odds with the CCP's charter. This is precisely why labor advocates are treated with suspicion and often repression – but also some degree of caution. During the 2015 '709 Crackdown,' China jailed dozens of human rights lawyers, but took a softer approach with labor activists, quietly releasing them or assigning them jobs after detention to avoid international attention further escalating the issue. The goal was clear: to suppress attention and not provoke an international firestorm. A similar pattern played out in 2025, when Brazil sued BYD for alleged forced labor. Instead of lashing out at international critics, as it often does in response to human rights issues, China responded discreetly and promised an investigation. These examples reflect the nuance and sensitivity that the government applies to labor issues, as compared to human rights issues that it often rebuts. This different approach underscores the potential for labor issues to compel government action and, in turn, how international labor standards can be used as a tool for change. In other words, for the Chinese government, labor conditions resonate where abstract human rights appeals do not. From factory workers to office employees, the majority of China's workforce faces long hours, low wages, and little social protection. Labor violations aren't theoretical; they are everyday realities that could fuel domestic pressure and policy reform if exposed. Tools to address these problems already exist. In the United States, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and Section 307 of the Tariff Act have led to meaningful enforcement actions, even if many Uyghur workers are rarely found in primary factories supplying to the U.S. In the future, as additions to the UFLPA entity list are expected to slow, U.S. enforcement could shift toward broader supply chain interventions through the Withhold Release Orders (WROs), further expanding to address forced labor issues in supply chains, using enforcement to promote fairer labor standards. Yet despite the tools at Washington's disposal, labor concerns remain sidelined in mainstream trade discussions, drowned out by debates over tariffs, trade deficits, and subsidies. These traditional tools have struggled to move the needle on Chinese economic policy, which is largely built upon China's persistent low labor cost advantage. Labor, by contrast, is a pressure point the Chinese government is less prepared to resist, precisely because it implicates both the CCP's legitimacy and its economic model. Labor issues directly affect the immediate interests of the Chinese people, which concerns the government, and international labor standards can thus serve as an effective mechanism to expose the deeply rooted structural flaws in China's governance model. This is the moment for the United States and its allies in Europe to unite around labor standards as a strategic pillar of trade policy. As China-EU tensions continue to simmer, a coordinated, transatlantic approach, through shared standards, trade mechanisms, and enforcement frameworks, could significantly increase leverage over China's labor practices. This strategy not only advances sustainable global supply chains but also balances immediate commercial interests with long-term labor equity, benefiting workers in both the United States and China. 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