Philippines Vs Taiwan... Troubled Waters

Actual payment is the least they could do. It would be too easy for them to kill people and simply offer apology without any costs - and even then the sincerity of such an apology is very much in doubt.

Aquino even made the comment of treating this incident based on 'One country rule' - implying that he is only apologizing because of Chinese pressure behind Taiwan, and not because he thinks the Philippines are somehow in the wrong. This is an unnecessary and nefarious comment to make and serves to sow discord between China and Taiwan.

Jeff Head said:

It is true that an off-the-cuff statement could have been made in 72 minutes. But such a statement would have given the Filipinos no time to ensure that they themselves had the full story and could analyze why the commander on the scene acted as he did. Such quick reactions are rarely how diploamatic exchanges occur, precisely because of the danger of them being too knee jerk. 72 hours is actually a very fast time in diplomatic circles...even for something like this.

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Yes but the Filipinos had no qualm in making inflammatory comments that quickly put a foot in their mouths. The PCG statement along the lines of "they can get sympathy but no apologies" really ticked off a lot of folks. Better would have been to offer the sympathies and keep the rest quiet till further notice.

no_name said:

Aquino even made the comment of treating this incident based on 'One country rule' - implying that he is only apologizing because of Chinese pressure behind Taiwan, and not because he thinks the Philippines are somehow in the wrong. This is an unnecessary and nefarious comment to make and serves to sow discord between China and Taiwan.

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Very true, Aquino hasn't been a very effective leader at all. Here he's deferring to the One China Principle but didn't the Philippines and Taiwan recently hashed out a crime fighting pact just weeks before? How was that possible if the One China Principle is the basis per Aquino? I don't think China was involved in hashing out that pact.

Look like the Filippinos are backing down over the issue. Ma's victory to show he's also a tough man. I'm looking forward to see how things are going to happen.

Negative.....it just got hotter.

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Later on Wednesday, Taiwan's Premier Jiang Yi-huah told reporters that he was dissatisfied with the apology because it came from the representative office, not the Philippine government, and because the statement had been changed several times.

"Philippine civil servants killed a person and damaged the boat, the Philippine government cannot avoid responsibility," he said.

Taiwan has demanded a "formal apology" from Manila, compensation for the victim's family, investigation and punishment for those responsible for the shooting, and the commencement of bilateral fishing talks.

It says it will consider adopting a second wave of sanctions against the Philippines if it does not receive a satisfactory reply by 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

These include issuing a travel warning to discourage Taiwanese people from visiting the Philippines, stopping all high-level exchanges and carrying out a military exercise in the disputed waters.

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This isn't looking too good.

Politically speaking, the Ma government has basically no room to back down here, few sane people would believe Ma is in any way / shape / form a warmonger, and if anything he's mostly being accused of being the opposite. But he's getting pushed dangerously close to that now.

the ROCN and coastguard have already sent a pretty significant fleet towards the disputed water where the shoot occured. (as in, way more than the Philippines could effectively defend against if they have any such intention.) and is scheduled for exercise tomorrow, that'll probably force at least a more serious reaction from the Philippine mass media which seem to have not grasp the severity of the situation so far. (and IMHO, neither have their government.)

In a limited conflict, the Philippines have nothing on the ROC at all. They don't even have any anti ship missiles, their jets are all trainer variety.

The PRC would do well to not try to complicate this situation, because we could end up with some nasty situation if say.. the Philippines decide to officially apologize to Beijing instead. and it's actually a game they might play.


It would be pretty interesting though if the last straw on the camel i this region happened between one of the most passive player in the region and one of the weakest.

China Wants Probe Into Taiwanese Fisherman's Death



by KD Suarez
Posted on 05/15/2013 1:21 PM | Updated 05/15/2013 1:25 PM

MANILA, Philippines - China has also demanded an investigation into the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) last week.China, which claims Taiwan as a province, made the demand Wednesday, May 15, saying that it is an "obligation for the mainland" to protect Taiwan's citizens, state news agency Xinhua reported.

A 65-year-old fisherman was shot dead by after the PCG said his vessel had strayed into territorial waters, sparking outrage in Taiwan at a time of high tensions over regional maritime disputes.We have repeatedly condemned the violent killing of the innocent fisherman since the incident happened," State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi was quoted as saying in a press conference."We have demanded that the Philippine side to take the case seriously, find out the truth as quickly as possible and punish those responsible," Yang added.

Jeff Head said:

Well, if the Filipinos officially apologize AND pay reparations to the family, then they will have been made to do those things, which is excatly what should happen, and Tawan will have stood up and demanded these things and gotten them. What more do you want?

As to then projecting somehow that this is in some way insufficient and somehow linked to a western press conspiracy against China is simply ludicrous and reveals your own bias. Let's wait and see what happens before we make such a prescient judgement call.

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Lol settle down. U are way over your head. Wat more do I want? Can't you read? I said in my post after the Filipinos sent the guy to apologize i expect we will all move on from this. not hard to understand. Jeez.

And the west media will treat this as a minor nothing and brush this incident aside while looking for more big bad china stories. Wats so hard to understand. Everyone here is aware of that. Thats how its gonna play out, that is the western narrative. I know you are speaking from the american perspective so that can be biased but You can't be that naive surely.
I'm certainly not expecting all the china bad, china bully stories to stop because I'm not dumb enough to think it will go away. There are way more powerful and sinister forces at play so I'm not expecting anything with regards to this. In regards to the killing of the tw fisherman, I say this again, I expect we will all move on from this after the apology!

Whether it will actually be settled or not after a simple apology is anyone's guess.

RollingWave said:

This isn't looking too good.

Politically speaking, the Ma government has basically no room to back down here, few sane people would believe Ma is in any way / shape / form a warmonger, and if anything he's mostly being accused of being the opposite. But he's getting pushed dangerously close to that now.

the ROCN and coastguard have already sent a pretty significant fleet towards the disputed water where the shoot occured. (as in, way more than the Philippines could effectively defend against if they have any such intention.) and is scheduled for exercise tomorrow, that'll probably force at least a more serious reaction from the Philippine mass media which seem to have not grasp the severity of the situation so far. (and IMHO, neither have their government.)

In a limited conflict, the Philippines have nothing on the ROC at all. They don't even have any anti ship missiles, their jets are all trainer variety.

The PRC would do well to not try to complicate this situation, because we could end up with some nasty situation if say.. the Philippines decide to officially apologize to Beijing instead. and it's actually a game they might play.


It would be pretty interesting though if the last straw on the camel i this region happened between one of the most passive player in the region and one of the weakest.

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we need not to worry about any danger of any conflict because no pinoy captain or sailor will want to be anywhere near that area! they just killed a Taiwan fisherman and shot up an unarmed fishing boat with 50 bullet holes. when the ROC navy and CG come they will not be in good mood to put it nicely. the Taiwanese are just begging for a tiny excuse to open fire on these pinoys. the Philippine navy or coastguard would be insane to be in that area.

Well no, the ROC navy and Coastguards generally show the up most restraint in using force, the ROC is trying to play as much by the rules as they can here, since let's face it, even when they do, the international community is usually rigged against them, imagine if the roles were reversed here, we'd be North Korea at sea.

The news isn't getting better, the ROC have just announced that they are declaring the Philippines a red travelling zone, aka do not go for whatever reason, all tours are canceled with full refund immediately. this is almost always only reserved for war zones.

I think the key issue here is that the Philippines have been avoiding to talk on a government to government basis here, playing the 1 China card to their advantage (or so they think.) but this is probably only adding oil to the fire to be honest and it is very unlikely that Beijing will help them out here.

As it is now, tomorrow we'll probably be firing rounds dangerously close to the Philippine islands.

I'm not kidding when I'm saying that we're on a trajectory towards war, I'm hoping that the Philippine government isn't as deluded as some of their online poster here. its getting late early for them. as early investigation on our side sees evidence mostly in agreement with the Fisherman's side of the story, as in... no signs of ramming, clearly being hit by heavy machine gun, guy shot while inside the deck, GPS seems to show they're not even really in the disputed water when most of the shooting occured (aka they might actually be only in our EEZ, that would REALLY be asking for war. if it turns out that they're firing at our ships in OUR EEZ, not even crossed once.)

getready said:

Lol settle down. U are way over your head.

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I am not in the least riled...and not in the least over my head.

getready said:

Wat more do I want? Can't you read? I said in my post after the Filipinos sent the guy to apologize i expect we will all move on from this. not hard to understand. Jeez.

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Tell me again who needs to settle down? Your comment about moving on was based on them giving an apology. I indicated Taiwan expected payment to the family as well. Now, we see that neither has happened. So we are not moving on. I simply asked you what more you wanted...if you do not want more, simply say so.

getready said:

And the west media will treat this as a minor nothing and brush this incident aside while looking for more big bad china stories. Wats so hard to understand. Everyone here is aware of that. Thats how its gonna play out, that is the western narrative.

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Supposition apparently based on your bias. I prefer to wait and see what happens.

getready said:

I know you are speaking from the american perspective so that can be biased but You can't be that naive surely.

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A snap judgement, again, apparently based on your own bias. I simply asked you a queston about your comment.. A question which you never directly answered...and that is fine, it is your right. You are under no obligation to answer...and I am under no obligation not to ask.