“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command,” is from the last paragraph of George Orwell’s celebrated dystopian novel “1984.” Not only is the quote a famous political quotation, but it also happens to animate the hostile exchanges between Philippine officials and China’s embassy in Manila, as we’ll see later on.
First, however, Orwell’s quote frames how we’ll interpret striking statements made last week by 1Sambayan political coalition, a group known for its strong opposition to China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.
Besides calling on government to take a firmer stand in defending the national interest, 1Sambayan remarkably said “the Chinese Communist Party has clearly treated the public opinion space as a strategic arena of competition.”
A current state of affairs on which 1Sambayan says “the Philippine government — and the Filipino people must be prepared to defend this space with vigilance, unity and an unwavering commitment to sovereignty, truth and democratic values.”
Why is 1Sambayan’s striking statement interesting?
Well, for the most part, it acknowledges the fact that public opinion, for a host of reasons, can’t be ignored and that public opinions need to be consciously formed, actively defended and even vigorously fought for.
Inasmuch as that’s the case, aggressively competing for favorable public opinion or reversing public opinion on any given national issue generally has grave consequences in politics.
One consequence, as Orwell clearly states, is that it can lead anyone holding firmly held political opinions, especially if formed by targeted propaganda, to “reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.”
How then does that relate to the animosities and the verbal war between Philippine and Chinese officials?
Clearly, as is evident from the Chinese Embassy’s social media posts as well as from news reports, Chinese diplomats assigned here are making concerted and well-publicized efforts at reversing general Filipino public opinion regarding the West Philippine Sea (WPS) confrontations.
Those efforts are also partly seen in the courtesy calls on politicians allied with the Dutertes, nominally sympathetic to China, by the current Chinese ambassador. A fact perhaps inadvertently emphasized strongly by China sympathizer Senator Rodante Marcoleta conveying Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan’s complaint that China was taking exception to portrayals of China as the WPS “villain.”
Given that complaint, it’s safe to say that Chinese diplomats are doubling down, perhaps even actively muddying the waters, insofar as what’s been happening at the WPS.
As it is, China is smarting over how most Filipinos distrust China, courtesy of the administration’s innovative transparency initiative, and with Filipinos’ continuing disgust over China’s pronounced aggressiveness in the WPS.
For what it’s worth, the Chinese diplomats’ underhanded intention, therefore, is for Filipinos to start disbelieving what they’ve seen or heard so far about the WPS confrontations. A point made plain when the Chinese Embassy bristled at the 15 senators who last week signed a resolution condemning the Chinese Embassy in Manila for criticizing Filipino officials and institutions for taking anti-China positions.
In a Facebook post, the embassy said that “echoes do not make a claim true,” and that “what matters is whether the arguments stand up to scrutiny, not how many voices repeat it.”
One observer privately interpreted those statements as nothing but gaslighting, meaning that the officials of the Chinese Embassy clearly want us to focus on our actions and on politics instead of the evident bullying committed by Chinese maritime forces.