U.S. Must Resolve to End Chinese Tyranny

James Rhodes

In regards to aggressor nations, no matter who they may be, civilized countries must develop a unified policy to terminate any such hostile action or activity. Concerning this, history can be a valuable teacher. We must learn from the mistakes of others as God knows we do not have the time to make them all ourselves. During the mid-1930s Adolph Hitler, with field assistance from Heinrich Himmler, instituted a campaign against liberals, Jews, Socialists, Communists, gypsies, and other groups they deemed undesirable. Passive Europe adopted an appeasement policy with Hitler which they thought would avoid conflict and prevent war. Nothing was done when Germany took over the Saar in 1935; or the Rhineland in 1936; or Austrian and Czechoslovakia in 1938.  After Poland was invaded in September of 1939, WWII officially began and millions of lives were needlessly lost because no one had the courage to stop the Nazis after they assimilated the Saar in 1935.

At the conclusion of WWII, dominant global military powers allowed the Soviet Union to absorb entire nations and deprived countless masses their right to self determination in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and even create an East Germany.  This created the Cold War in which trillions of dollars were diverted into the military-industrial complex as opposed to finding cures for killer diseases, ending world hunger, things of this nature.

Today a similar threat exists that threatens to destabilize the world. Not as well known as the designs of a Hitler or Stalin but nonetheless as insidious, calculating, and cunning. Its origins are east of the Gulf of Tonkin in a region the Vietnamese, and myself, refer to as the Eastern Sea. Of course, the Chinese refer to it as the South China Sea, after all, they are the strongman of the region and in their attempt to rewrite history have intimidated and murdered those that oppose their power grabs.

It matters not that the Eastern Sea contains about 30,000 islands and reefs. Collectively some of these small land masses are claimed by Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. Because they are in the “South China Sea” apparently all of them belong to China irregardless of real history.

Ancient Chinese texts of Ling Wai Da and Zhu Fan Zhi indicate that Hoang Sa (Paracel Islands) and Tru’o’ng Sa (Spratly Islands) were associated with and part of what is now northern Vietnam. This fact was again repeated in literature of the 17^th Century; an atlas of the region in 1838; and by Western imperialist France through the Nguyen Dynasty in 1887 and 1933. There have been numerous, unrelated references linking the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands to Vietnam from ancient times. However, at the conclusion of WWII, China attempted to land grab in the Eastern Sea; but, the Cairo Declaration supported Vietnam’s claim to the islands. This position was affirmed at the San Francisco Conference on the Peace Treaty with Japan in 1951.

To date China has been most successful with their quest to obtain additional territories and land masses. In 1950 China annexed Tibet. China now has control of the Panama Canal and as of 1997, Hong Kong, and in 1999 secured Macau.

In 1988 China, unprovoked, launched an attack against Vietnamese carrying the national flag on the Spratly Islands. This was a calculated act of murder that should have outraged the entire world. Over 64 Vietnamese were needlessly killed and others went unaccounted for in the face of this naked aggression. To date the Chinese military, as a matter of policy, continues to harass all non-Chinese fishermen and scientific vessels in the “South China Sea.” Recently they have rammed and sunk Vietnamese fishing boats and taken entire crews hostage.

Senator John McCain has publically stated he does not support China’s claims in the Eastern Sea. On 23 July 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a regional solution to the Eastern Sea problem. It was soon thereafter reported in the MANILA TIMES that Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, said that “the Vietnamese invitation to the United States to mediate (the Eastern Sea problem) was AN ATTACK ON CHINA.” These are the ramblings of an aggressor bully meant to intimidate the weak. This is 1935 Hitler. This is 1945 Stalin. The Eastern Sea does not belong solely to China and the world must insure that China will never control all its access and resources. An appeasement of the aggressor bully today will certainly set the stage for another armed conflict in the near future. All the other Southeastern Asian nations that are actively seeking a peaceful solution to this dilemma should not be dictated to by the only nation that has distorted the historical truth and then murdered to defend their lie.

It is in the interest of world peace, fairness, and justice that the world do the right thing today and support the documented Vietnamese sovereignty in the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands. We must not fall victim to those that would misuse military might and the threat of violence to achieve their partisan political goals at the expense of those they feel are inferior just as Hitler did in the 1930s and Stalin during the 1940s!

Submitted by the author to viet-studies on July 8, 2011