The Scarborough Shoal and the Tiangong-1 space laboratory are two extreme topics that are worthy of our attention – we Filipinos.
Worthy of our attention because it is all about China – the same giant nation laying total ownership of the whole of South China Seas, including the sovereignty dispute the Philippines is having with them on the Scarborough Shoal, which is much, much nearer to the country, being within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
It is also showing now how insignificant we are compared to their global status, not only militarily and economically, but technologically as well, after the recent success of China’s ambitious space mission where their Shenzhou-9 spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and China’s first female astronaut.
This achievement makes China the third country to complete a manned space docking, following the United States and Russia.
The Tiangong-1, which was launched last year, and which is said to be of the size of a bus, is due to be replaced by a permanent space station around 2020. That station is to weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA’s Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station.
The reason why I am bringing these two extreme topics to our attention is because, while the Chinese are finding success in their space exploitation, the more that they will strive to be successful in their exploitation of the seas, which includes their claim of the whole of South China Seas, to the prejudice of our claims to some of the islands that we feel rightfully ours because of its proximity.
Clearly, it is lunacy to go into an armed conflict with China.
But, small and weak as we are, the Philippine government should be brave and determined enough to seek help from the international community in our battle to win the territorial dispute with China over some areas in the South China Seas or the West Philippine Seas, which we see belonging to the country by virtue of the UNCLOS.
