{"id":5620,"date":"2019-08-14T02:14:25","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T16:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5620"},"modified":"2019-12-19T03:10:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T16:10:40","slug":"chinas-invasion-thru-debt-trap-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5620","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Invasion thru Debt- trap Diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Bernie Lopez <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two ominous warnings on the Chinese invasion of the Philippines.\nThe first was a prophecy of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, who said, \u201cPray\nhard, for China\u2019s dream is to invade the whole world. The Philippines is one\nof its favourites.\u201d [This warning] was given to visionary Sister Teresing\nCastillo in Lipa way back in October 17, 1949. It was not until 65 years later,\nwhen it was revealed to media by then former Archbishop of Lipa Ricardo\nCardinal Vidal. (Source: <\/strong>Inquirer<\/em><\/strong>, July 13, 2014).\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second warning came from Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, who said to the Philippines during his recent state visit, \u201cIf you borrow huge sums of money from China, and then you cannot pay, the borrower is under the control of the lender. So, we have to be very careful about that.\u201d He was referring to China\u2019s debt-trap diplomacy<\/strong>. Mahathir\u2019s warning echoes the Marian prophecy, implying that it is not necessarily a military invasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is debt-trap Diplomacy? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debt-Trap Diplomacy (DTD) simply\nmeans a rich country offering massive\nloans to a poor country to control key\neconomic and financial infrastructure\nin its favor to the detriment of that\ncountry. It is easier, cheaper and\nfaster to strangle weak Third World\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nations into submission this way than to send warships and troops.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s sudden massive DTD global presence includes mega-projects in Sri-Lanka,\nPakistan, Maldives, Djibouti, and many African nations, and now the Philippines. In\nSri Lanka, the government ceded control of a strategic China-funded port in\nHabamtota due to loan default. In Djibouti and many resource-rich African nations,\nthe big loans for infrastructure are collateralized by mining rights, which will use the\nvery roads China financed. How many ports and infrastructure projects does China\nhave in the Philippines, what are the conditionalities, and who will benefit? Are they\nover-borrowings or justifiable?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the same approach of Western mining multinationals in partnership with lending\ninstitutions. DTD is actually an age-old practice among Western nations, through the\nWorld Bank-USAID-ADB and other consortia in partnership with multinationals.\nWhereas the Western approach is subtler, the China DTD model is alarmingly more\nblatant and faster. China is now doing that blatantly in a matter of a year or two through\nmassive loans. Now, the Western media points a finger at China on a crime the West\nhas been doing for decades. (Source: issafrica.org\/sri-lanka).\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many factors in the speed of China\u2019s strangulation. First, cash-strapped\nnations like the Philippines have a natural hunger and greed for loans, hence\nunjustified borrowings are easily approved. China knows the Philippines is corrupt\nwith a capital \u2018C\u2019. The ZTE fiasco in 2007 was a clear example of the impact of\ncorruption of both lender and borrower. A government deal of a whopping US$330\nmillion (Php16.5 billion) with ZTE of China was aborted when a bribery scandal was\nexposed in the Senate. ZTE is the tip of the iceberg.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The practice continues today under different names and programs. Government\npeople are hounded to approve loans. The invasion goes full swing.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, China is oozing with capital from unprecedented growth. If this money is not\nre-invested, China\u2019s economy will crash. There is extreme pressure to look for\ninvestment opportunities, by hook or by crook, especially in poor countries rich in\nresources much needed to maintain growth.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filipinos are now just beginning to be wary of the dangers of foreign control. There is\na look-out for foreign-funded media and foreign-owned firms in politically sensitive\nareas such as utilities, roads, railways, and mining. There is fear that the massive\nentry of Chinese labor, legal and illegal, estimated at 300,000, is denying employment\nto Filipinos and may cause social unrest.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahathir\u2019s warnings jive with the Mediatrix prophecy. Filipinos must resort more to\nprayers rather than bullets as the key to peace. The US carriers in the South China\nSea are not the solution but the problem. The Lord protects His people who are under\nHis wings, as in Jericho and Sodom and Gomorrah. The prayer to Our Lady Mediatrix\nof All Grace does not ask for the \u2018conversion\u2019 of China to Catholicism. It asks for\nChina\u2019s goodwill rather than dominance (DTD) in dealing with poor nations.\nEverybody must benefit from development, rich and poor. \u03a9\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bernie Lopez There are two ominous warnings on the Chinese invasion of the Philippines. The first was a prophecy of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, who said, \u201cPray hard, for China\u2019s dream is to invade the whole world. The Philippines is one of its favourites.\u201d [This warning] was given to visionary Sister Teresing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5621,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions\/5621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}