China and Malaysia join forces to catapult lion dance onto Unesco cultural heritage list
This dispute between China and Philippines under Macros Jr is rather interesting.
We can run down the list of the other nine members of ASEAN.
Start with Brunei, and I got no idea. Too small.
Thailand, didn't they just had a recent military exercise with the PLAAF? Malaysia, Anwar Ibarhim has a rather pro-China stances given those recent meetings between Malaysia and China. Indonesia has rather good relations with China now, which was not the case in the past.
Laos, Cambodia, Burma, they all could be client states. Vietnam is not going to rock the boat with its China relations. Too much business involved. Singapore does not want to offend anyone, there relations are good with all these guys.
That is how out of step this Philippines and China dispute in the South China Sea is. Everyone is a claimant, okay half of ASEAN, still why is it only the Philippines raising such a fuss.
I think everyone has concluded that the Philippines is a deeply corrupt place, that Marcos Jr is nothing but an American puppet, because he wants the money his father stole back for his family. So Marcos Jr creates a mini-crisis against China to show his loyalty to America.
If the issue really is about those islands, then every other member of ASEAN has managed to manage that issue with China, and advance their bilateral relationships, making boat loads of money along the way. Except the Philippines.
This is no grand epic historical story. Just a punk leader who wants his family money back from his sponsor.