China’s $100,000 aid ‘measly,’ judged by its Phl mining take
转自菲律宾星报GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star) | Updated November 20, 2013 - 12:00am
Talk about fair-weather friend. “As hundreds of thousands of Filipinos struggled to find food, water, shelter and the bodies of loved ones in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, China quickly dipped into its world-leading $3.7 trillion of currency reserves and came up with … all of $100,000.” That Bloomberg news lead captured the general recoil at how the world’s second-largest economy treats an Asian neighbor. Other headlines stated “cheapskate,” “paltry,” “miserly” and, in one mainland-Chinese daily, “ungenerous.”
Beijing could not have missed the effects of history’s strongest ever typhoon to make landfall. Global networks had tracked Haiyan’s ruin of the Philippines, where three-fourths of families have Chinese blood. Undeterred by Philippine mountain ranges, the storm crossed over the sea to hit China. One drowned and seven went missing in Hainan, and many areas were flooded in Guangxi provinces. Beijing came upon a chance to show amity and soft power. Yet it chose to be petty, due to sea disputes with Manila. With trade overshooting $36 billion in 2012, China often calls the Philippines “partner.”
In the first hours of Filipinos’ distress, the world sprang to the rescue. The US rushed in an aircraft carrier group laden with emergency crews and $20-million relief. Britain, Japan, and Korea sent trucks, food, and cash of, in turn, $16 million, $10 million, and $5 million. Donations poured in from Australia, $28 million; European Union, $17 million; Vatican, $4 million; Indonesia, $2 million; and Taiwan, which China labels its province, $200,000.
Private outfits across the globe gave too, among the first Coca Cola, $2.5 million; NBA, $500,000; Journey rock band, $350,000; and L.A. Lakers, $150,000. Media outlets compared the amounts to China’s. Stung by criticisms Beijing later announced to follow up with $1.4 million in tents and blankets. By then the initial donors had doubled or tripled their pledges, with still more states, heeding the UN plea for $301 million for preliminary rehab. News persisted that China’s additional aid was but half the $2.7 million from the Swedish furniture maker Ikea.
Manila graciously thanked Beijing’s aid. The nine million stricken folk need all the help they can get. Chinese think tanks rued the ruin to China’s reputation as Asia’s fastest rising power.
Haiyan’s destruction is both natural and man-made. Its 320-kph winds toppled substandard structures, and 15-foot waves lashed coastal towns denuded of mangrove forest cover. Although most vulnerable to climate change-induced weather disturbances, the Philippines goes on despoiling its natural wealth. China plays a big role in the Philippines’ environmental ravage.
In Leyte province, worst hit by Haiyan, China’s Nicua Mining Corp. for years has been sucking up black sand from the beaches, for magnetite. Overturned in the process are corals, around which fish and mollusks feed and spawn. Displaced fishermen have taken to dynamiting, and making charcoal out of felled mangroves, compounding the environmental ruin.
Foreigners are forbidden from mining in the Philippines, except for special financial-technical assistance. But Nicua was able to skirt the ban by buying out a local concessionaire in Macarthur town. Too, Filipinos and foreigners alike are barred from seaside black sand mining. But the giant Chinese miner was allowed because its site supposedly is a farm far inland. From there it financed poor coastal dwellers in other towns to gather black sand, small-scale. It then took over them, hauling sand onto barges, large-scale. Chinese miners do not play by the rules, employing bribery to extract and export Philippine minerals illegally.
Magnetite from black sand sustains China’s steel, telecoms, and medical and audio equipment industries. Because angry locals disrupt Nicua’s harmful operations, more Chinese miners poach black sand elsewhere. In Cagayan, Ilocos, Pangasinan, and Zambales in Luzon, they routinely pay off local officials to look the other way as they ship away the mineral. Lawmen last Aug. raided such a Chinese operation, of Huaxia Trading & Mining Corp. in Cagayan. Beijing’s embassy bailed out the 18 Chinese poachers, whereupon they sailed for home. China’s Lian Xing Stone Carving Co. remains, illicitly burrowing sand in Luzon.
In Homonhon Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar, first to be hit by Haiyan, Peng Cheng Metallic Resources Inc. mines nickel and chromite. If magnetite operations ruin seashores, nickel-chromite mines denude forests and muddy the rivers. Mountains are leveled to extract the ore, for loading in bulk cargo vessels to China.
Filipinos may mine under production-sharing agreements with the government. Peng Cheng elbowed its way into Homonhon five years ago by buying into the local miner. In payolas, mining regulators and town officials ignore islanders’ pleas that the zone long had been awarded to them for pasturing. Also into ferronickel in Eastern Samar is China’s Rock Check Steel Co. Ltd.
Nickel and chromite too feed China’s steel mills. In Zambales, three Chinese miners have permits from national authorities for nickel in Botolan town down south. But Wei Wei Group, Jiangxi Rare Earth Metals and Tungsten Group, and Nihao Mineral Resources are insatiable. Via five subsidiaries, they use 93 “small-scale” Filipino miners as fronts to extract ore up north in Sta. Cruz and Masinloc, and in adjacent Infanta, Pangasinan. The governor of Zambales had signed the “small-scale” mining permits all in one day in 2011.
Chinese zinc, gold, silver, copper, iron, cobalt, manganese, chromite, and nickel mines abound in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The five in northern Zambales are most injurious. Hillsides have been laid barren, rivers and coastal waters muddied. Dust from extractions and emissions from thousands of dump trucks blacken the air. Sta. Cruz and Masinloc townsfolk suffer higher than national average incidences of intestinal and lung ailments. One of the five fronts, LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc., runs a port in Sta. Cruz from which four shiploads of ore depart weekly.
Beijing’s sea rows with Manila and Hanoi are all about mineral and marine wealth. Ironically, Manila abets China’s virtual invasion of mines within Philippine land territory: Leyte, Samar, Luzon. Flourishing from Philippine metal extractions, China’s steel and related industries build warships, weapons, and surveillance systems to grab Philippine shoals. Chinese vessels have fenced off Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) off Zambales, where Hainanese launches catch more than the $100,000-Chinese aid, daily in food fish and corals. Jiangxi Group also mines nickel and cobalt in Palawan, hard hit too by Haiyan, and where China is itching to grab yet more banks.
On record China derives from the Philippine $4 billion of minerals per year. Nickel ore alone is 13 million metric tons a year. The figure could double if the illegal Chinese mines are counted. They deprive the Philippines of taxes and royalties. And that’s no way to treat a friend.
* * *
赞一个！，在这个世界里只能说是要多多靠运气，靠公平？？想都别想.....
在菲律宾赚钱的很多，有的一路下来，运气不错，没碰到什么事情，有的碰到了一些问题，他们第一时间就是抱怨别人的坏，说别人是强盗什么的.也不自己想想他们是不是有真正的合法的，没有漏税什么的，一切照法律形式的方式下进行的！如果有正规，相信很少会碰到像木木木的问题.正所谓，几乎都是睁一只眼。闭一只眼，猫捉老鼠的游戏，几乎90%的华人包括我都没有照人家的条规来走，照别人的法律来走，。。这能怪别人？？
如果你有的话，，你大可以去告他们啊，就像老熊那样。。不然，只能说你运气不好。。 kent2304 发表于 2013-11-21 08:15
赞一个！，在这个世界里只能说是要多多靠运气，靠公平？？想都别想.....
在菲律宾赚钱的很多，有的一路下来 ...
我发现我很多观点跟你出奇的相似，总体来说就是游戏规则，我们要尊重人家的游戏规则，就是一切要对法律的敬仰！当然他们也有黑暗面，但是不能动不动就说人家的问题，比如移民局抓人的问题，前提是你有证还怕他抓人么？比如你开店，你按规矩缴税，还怕他来敲诈么？
我发现欧美人无论到哪里都很尊重法律，亚洲人，特别是韩国和中国人真的是。。。
欢迎大家来喷吧！！ 有人用伊索寓言里，农夫与蛇的故事，來比喻中国对菲律宾风灾的捐助。如果上文作者罗列的数据正确的话，那么谁是农夫？谁是蛇？ And that’s no way to treat a friend.
hehe 其实美国对一向听话的小弟菲律宾多捐助些也是应该的
而中国对关系不太好的菲律宾意思意思一下也没啥好说的,人嘛都是现实的
生活和在菲做生意的华人其实也是懂得回馈社会的,看看那些华文报报载,除了那几个传统老侨社团和老侨领,那些新侨社团和新侨领们捐款也是不为人后的{:6_339:}
页:
[1]