Clueless pawn

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada went viral with his bid to apologize and compensate for the deaths of six Hong Kong tourists in a botched bus hijack rescue in August 2010.

This is “buffoonery,” snapped Philip Bowring, who writes for South China Morning Post to International Herald Tribune. This journalist has tracked Asia for 39 years

Estrada tried to show up ex-mayor Alfredo Lim “under whose watch the Luneta bus attack occurred,” Bowring notes in a column on Hong Kong’s demands. Instead, he ends up a clueless pawn in China’s complex South China sea claim.

“Sanctions would be imposed,” unless Hong Kong’s demands were met, threatened the appointed mayor Leung Chun-ying. The Legislative Council last week clamped set a time frame: one month. Suspend visa-free arrangement for Philippine visitors, the council proposed

“It’s bizarre for the head of a city of seven million people to threaten sanctions against a sovereign nation of 97 million,” Bowring wrote. “But that’s the outcome of barely disguised racism in Hong Kong. (It is) underpinned by China’s desire to punish the Philippines for standing up to Beijing’s claims to almost the whole South China Sea.”

“Filipinos have long been overtaken by Indonesia in supply of domestic helpers.” And barring Filipinos would upset many Hong Kong employers, Bowring note. Significantly, “Filipinos have other work options.”

Overseas Filipinos work in over 160 countries, Asian Development Bank notes. Among these are pilots, doctors, physics professors, domestic helpers, computer specialists to airport controllers. One in every 10 Filipino works abroad.

Trade sanctions are verboten. “Hong Kong would make an idiot of itself before the World Trade Organization and Asia Pacific Economic Council,” Bowring scoffs. These are only two organizations on which Hong Kong “has separate international status.”

Hong Kong tacked the Philippines on a travel blacklist with Syria. This affects group tours from Hong Kong. But (it) had scant impact on the Philippines, currently enjoying a tourist boom. Visitors come notably from Korea but also include China. “In Hong Kong, foreigners ignore this blacklist.”

Leung & Company demands “as though presidents routinely apologize on behalf of a whole country for the misdeeds of a few. That’s ironic coming a few days after a Filipina physician was among five killed in a Tiananmen Square attack by five Uygurs. Filipinos were among others killed in Beijing in 2008. “No presidential apology or compensation was offered by government.”

Leung uses the Manila bus case to divert attention “from issues at home. His popularity is at a low ebb.” Recently, (he) denied a TV channel license to favor “existing players – owned by property tycoons with connections to members of the Executive Council and to Beijing-friendly interests.”

Hong Kong boasts of laws to protect domestic workers. “But in practice, (it) declines to enforce them.” The result is employees being paid less than the statutory wage, denied time off to which they are entitled. (Some) see their passports confiscated and with limited time to find new jobs if they leave an abusive employer.

“All Southeast and South Asian minorities in Hong Kong—some there for generations—suffer constant discrimination. There is an Equal Opportunities Commission supposed to tackle discrimination issues, some stemming from government policies. Domestic helpers on contracts get no help from it.”

Leung used the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to make demands of Aquino. “This was itself beyond his remit. Under other circumstances, (this) would have incurred Beijing’s wrath for addressing an issue to a head of state rather than leaving this to the central government.” Hong Kong has no independence in international affairs other than trade and financial issues.

“But Beijing saw advantage in letting Leung act as though he were a head of state,” Bowring adds. “It’d bolster Leung’s battered image in Hong Kong and provide a stick to beat Manila. Leung never does anything without getting a green light from Beijing. So it is clear that the sanctions threat had its backing.”

Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, also challenge China’s claim to almost the whole area, BBC points out. They claim territory in the South China Sea that, they say, falls within their “Economic Exclusion Zones.”

The smell of oil overhangs the issue. US Energy Information Administration cites one Chinese estimate puts possible oil reserves as high as 213 billion barrels. That’s 10 times the proven reserves of the US, BBC notes. But American scientists have estimated the amount of oil at 28 billion barrels.

“The real wealth of the area may well be natural gas reserves. Estimates say the area holds about 900 trillion cubic ft (25 trillion cubic m).” That’s in the same league as Qatar’s proven reserves.

“Beijing is suspicious of Hong Kong’s pretensions. Many look down on mainlanders and resent their increasing prominence. It rightly senses that Hong Kong has an inflated sense of its importance and a very parochial world view,” Bowring adds. “But on this occasion it is happy to buy into Hong Kong’s assumptions of Chinese ethnic superiority in general and of Hong Kongers value in particular.”

President Benigno Aquino III has refused payment. “As a people, Filipinos had no part in this tragedy. In the end this may never get to sanctions. But could enough money be squeezed and apologies extracted for Hong Kong to claim victory?” Bowring asks.

If that comes to pass, credit the buffoonery of an utterly clueless Mayor Joseph Estrada.