US interventionists must be pushed away from PH-Beijing row on Scarborough, CPP says

By John Lloyd Hoffman and Gerry Albert Corpuz

MANILA, Philippines- The Philippines will be in better position and truly independent in dealing with China concerning territorial disputes over Scarborough Shoal and other parts of the Spratlys in South China Sea if they succeed in pushingWashington D.C away from the picture.

"The Filipino people must push the US interventionists away from the picture so they could independently confront China and be able to forge a mutually beneficial agreement through bilateral and multilateral diplomatic negotiations among the claimant countries," the Communist party of the Philippines (CPP) said in a press statement sent to all voices on Sunday.

The CPP noted that in the past, the conflicts in the South China Sea have never been a source of great tension between the Philippines and China, or among any of the claimant countries," said the CPP. "Without the presence and interference of the US, claimant countries, including China, have been able to work together with each other with the aim of resolving the conflicts through diplomacy and negotiations," it stressed.

The CPP said the conflicts have heightened only in the past two years since the US started to build up once again its military presence in the Asian region, setting its sights specifically against what it claimed to be threats by China on 'freedom of navigation' in the South China Sea," said the CPP.

"The Aquino regime's subservience to the US is further denying the Philippines the ability to establish equal and mutually beneficial relations with China or any other country that the US considers its enemy," added the CPP. "The US imperialists continue to regard the Chinese government as a strategic capitalist partner and collaborate with the Chinese big capitalist bureaucrats in exploiting the Chinese working class," said the CPP. "

However, in the face of the protracted global capitalist depression, the US intends to extract a bigger portion of capitalist profits by pushing for the breakup of state-owned enterprises and the further liberalization of trade, investment and financial policies in China."

"In order to maintain strategic partnership with China, the US needs to curtail China's growth as a military power by building up American naval strength in the Asia-Pacific," pointed out the CPP. "By declaring the 'American Pacific Century,' the US made clear as early as 2011 that it intends to strengthen its hegemony over the Asia-Pacific region by building and projecting its naval power in the area," added the CPP.

"Taking the historic point of view, it is easy to understand that the heightening aggressiveness of China in asserting its territorial claims over the South China Sea islands and other land features as a defensive reaction to what it views as American naval encirclement."