The expression “bull in a china shop” — for the information of the younger generations who did not have the in-depth literary education that ours did — means a person who causes widespread destruction in a place where delicate things are stored. “China” in that idiomatic phrase refers not to the country, but to fragile ceramic plates.

It might as well refer to the People’s Republic of China, the way its military is using high-handed tactics on its neighbors when it comes to its claims on the South China Sea. Our Coast Guard keeps complaining — and rightly so — about how they are shot at with high-pressure water cannons, blinded by military-grade lasers, and physically blocked by Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia ships, resulting in collisions and near-collisions, whenever the Philippine Coast Guard patrols the seas inside our exclusive economic zone or escorts civilian boats resupplying the BRP Sierra Madre. All of these bullying tactics are intended as acts of brinkmanship over contested waters.

It would appear that we are not the only country being pushed around by China. The same is happening to Vietnam, Malaysia and others (Taiwan has been subjected to numerous and incessant violations of its airspace since as far as we can remember). It’s just that we seem to be the most vocal about it, locally as well as internationally. Chinese media has been ranting and raving about how we bring reporters on our sorties to the West Philippine Sea, but in this day and age of rapid information, how else do we tell the world how we are being browbeaten in what are supposed to be our waters?

Our navy may be miniscule compared to China’s, which has — quantitatively at least — the world’s biggest naval force. But China does not understand the Filipino psyche: the more we are challenged, the more we resist.

There are some who say that China had started ratcheting up the pressure after the present administration started cozying up closer to the United States. That may indeed be true, and for whatever reason it is not important in this discussion. What is it that China has succeeded in pushing us away and towards, not only the US, but into defense alliances with countries like Japan and Australia, which have had their share of Chinese terror tactics. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old saw goes, and a country with a small military such as ours will tend to cultivate relations with others of greater might if faced with a Goliath. One must grab the bull by its horns.

The increase in the country’s EDCA sites, which I had initially supported, may be becoming an overreaction, as alliances do not have to go as far as making our country a “front line” (as President Marcos himself admits) and thus a target for armed strikes, especially in the face of tensions between China and Taiwan. We would hate to see parts of our country be the bullseye for Chinese missiles. It is, however, disingenuous for China to harass our ships because of EDCA. It’s like waving a red flag to a bull.

Some analysts say that the increasingly aggressive stance of China is impelled by forces, not on the international stage, but in its own home, where warmongering is needed to boost the ruling Communist Party’s political stock. In such a case, Chinese diplomats must do backchannel bull sessions with ours to defuse tensions, and not publicly take an arrogant stance spewing bullsh*t.

In the end, it is hoped that China realizes that a raging bull in a china shop would damage the china more than anything else. It must take the lead in sorting out this mess of its own making. Otherwise, to the detriment of regional stability, things will remain, to use a Tagalog colloquialism, “magulo, parang b*ll b*ll.”