The Philippines’ illegally grounded warship at Ren'ai Jiao in South Chiba Sea; ship may cause irreversible damage to marine life

 

Philippine ship may 'cause irreversible damage to marine life'

https://youtube.com/shorts/kHVYgfys70E?si=LJx3spoWSkZWVl9z

Photo: China Coast Guard

The hull and interior facilities of the illegally grounded Philippines' warship at Ren'ai Jiao (also known as Ren'ai Reef) are severely corroded, showed a set of images exclusively obtained by the Global Times from the China Coast Guard (CCG) recently.

Experts warned that the illegally grounded warship may cause irreversible and continuous damages to the marine life in the South China Sea.

Since 2023, the Philippines has acted in bad faith, and secretly supplied construction materials to the grounded warship through various means. The Philippines' repeated supplements fully exposed its intention to blatantly violate its promise to tow away the warship, and its attempt to illegally occupy China's Ren'ai Jiao with malicious intent.

Photo: China Coast Guard

The exclusive images obtained by the Global Times from the CCG show that the hull of the illegally grounded warship has damage and leaks, with a large amount of paint peeling off the hull, and many corroded rusts water directly flowing into the sea. The entire ship has almost become a pile of rusty scrap iron, with various personal items and garbage casually placed on the uncovered deck. 

Filipino military personnel are fishing on the shallow reef of Ren'ai Jiao. One of the images shows a Filipino military personnel is standing on the grounded warship and is suspected of urinating into the lagoon of Ren'ai Jiao.

The illegally grounded warship looks actually to be no longer suitable for human habitation and living. 

Photo: China Coast Guard

Several video clips captured earlier this year show that Filipino military personnel on the grounded warship not only dumped waste water directly into the sea, they also gathered on the foredeck to burn garbage. The actions of the Filipino military personnel have starkly contrasted with the pristine blue skies and clean waters near Ren'ai Jiao, showing their destruction of the marine environment.

Facing such a dilapidated warship, the Philippine authorities have repeatedly violated their promises. Instead of towing away the illegally grounded military vessel, they have attempted to carry out large-scale repairs and reinforcements on it. The transportation has been reinforced since last year.

Photo: China Coast Guard

An anonymous professional told the Global Times that since 2023, the Philippines has repeatedly illegally intruded into China's Ren'ai Jiao, and carried out illegal resupply activities for the warship. In addition to the malicious provocations, the reason behind this is that the warship is severely damaged, and the Philippines needs to resupply building materials to repair and reinforce it in order to maintain their illegal presence in China's Ren'ai Jiao. 

"But every time, the intention to secretly resupply building materials is exposed by the CCG, who resolutely stops it," the professional said.

Yang Xiao, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Strategy Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that due to the fact that the warship has been grounded for nearly 25 years, the spread of ship hull paint, the dissolution of hull metal rust, the discharge of fossil fuel combustion, and domestic waste onboard the ship have been discharged for a long time on the reefs and waters around the Ren 'ai Jiao.

Photo: China Coast Guard

These toxins continue to spread around the illegally grounded ship's grounding points, causing irreversible and continuous damage to the surrounding marine life. This not only causes the death of marine animals such as fish and shrimps, but also makes cumulative damages to marine aquatic plants. Furthermore, through the food chain, it poses significant adverse effects on the marine ecosystem of the South China Sea and humanity by extension, Yang said. 

For ships constantly moving at sea, the paint and pollution of the ship could be continuously diluted by seawater. However, if it's moored or grounded at fixed points for a long time, pollution is difficult to be diluted by seawater due to a lack of water movement, resulting in a gradient of toxins centered on the warship, Yang noted.

"Among them, prominent pollutants include mercury oxide, organotin [TBT], and copper compounds. There is enough scientific research to show that these toxins can cause irreversible pathogenic pollution to marine life. More importantly, with the enrichment of the food chain, these pollutants may enter the human living circle," Yang said.  

Yang further stated that the Philippine government, for the sinister purpose of stealing territory from other countries, deliberately ran a dilapidated military ship aground on the beautiful reefs of the South China Sea, and failed to fulfill its promise to remove it for 25 years. 

Moreover, the Philippines is unable and unwilling to carry out environmental protection and pollution control on the warship, leading to a large amount of natural and man-made pollutants being directly discharged into the surrounding reefs and waters, which is extremely irresponsible and uncivilized, Yang said.

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Farce of new US tariffs on China this time doesn't even match the lines

 

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

On May 14 local time, the Biden administration announced "severe" new tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports, including Chinese-made steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), lithium batteries and components, critical minerals, photovoltaic cells, port cranes, and personal protective equipment. Among these, tariffs on imported Chinese EVs will be quadrupled, rising from 25 percent to 100 percent. The import tax on Chinese solar cells will also double, from 25 percent to 50 percent. Additionally, starting from 2025, tariffs on imported Chinese semiconductors will jump from 25 percent to 50 percent.

In the context of the previous administration's Section 301 tariffs on China still being in place, the US side's use of the so-called "review" process to further increase or impose additional tariffs on Chinese products exported to the US is a serious provocation against China. This approach contradicts President Biden's commitment of not "holding back China's development" and not "seeking decoupling from China." It also goes against the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries. To some extent, it can even be understood as the US initiating a new round of tariff friction.

Before announcing the imposition of additional tariffs on China, the US repeatedly spread negative information in an attempt to smear related Chinese technology and products. This is essentially a sign of guilt, trying to manipulate public opinion to cover up the fact that they are politicizing and instrumentalizing economic and trade issues. It must be reiterated that the US has no legitimacy in imposing additional tariffs on China. The World Trade Organization (WTO) expert panel ruled that the Section 301 tariffs violate WTO rules. By continuing to impose additional tariffs on China based on Section 301, the US is further disregarding WTO authority and international trade rules, compounding its mistakes. Suppressing advanced industries of other countries under the banner of "overcapacity" and using "fair competition" as an excuse to promote protectionism are blatant bullying.

The US also uses the so-called "forced technology transfer" and "intellectual property theft" by China, along with the alleged "overcapacity," to justify imposing high tariffs on Chinese goods. These are fragile lies that can easily be exposed. In the fields of the products subjected to additional tariffs, Chinese technology is advanced and does not need to "compel" American companies to engage in "forced technology transfer," nor is there "intellectual property theft." The American political elites' accusations of "forced technology transfer" and "intellectual property theft" as the source of competitiveness for these Chinese products are like grabbing a script and speaking without matching the lines.

As for the accusation of "overcapacity," it is nothing but a lie fabricated by the US. Any product that the US lacks competitiveness in and is important to the US can be arbitrarily labeled as "overcapacity" by the US. In fact, the so-called "overcapacity" of some Chinese products is the result of the US' policy of trade protectionism and market distortion behavior. If the US opens its market, the overall supply and demand of these products in the international market will be more balanced, and the demand for new energy products in the US will also be met.

As mentioned in a previous editorial of the Global Times, considering the "almost zero" number of EVs exported from China to the US, even if the new tariffs are implemented, they are unlikely to immediately impact Chinese electric car companies. The same goes for lithium batteries and photovoltaic products. The Biden administration's exaggerated announcement at this time is of a practical but "not very useful" nature, giving the impression that it is not a careful choice made from genuine economic considerations, but rather a political show aimed at winning voters in an election year. It is a tariff package tailored to meet the political needs of the US. What is absurd is that after news about the White House's plan to impose a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles began to circulate, Trump immediately stated that he would slap a 200 percent tariff. It is clear that tariffs on China are being used as a card, and all actions revolve around domestic political interests.

Furthermore, the US imposing high tariffs on personal protective equipment from China is particularly puzzling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a global shortage of personal protective equipment, and China exported these products to the US, effectively helping the US fight the epidemic and protect the health of Americans. The US is now imposing high tariffs on these products, which has a strong sense of burning bridges after crossing them. It is precisely because of this that the US' imposition of tariffs on China this time is more repugnant and disgusting, fully exposing the hypocrisy of US hegemony.

China-US relations should not be used as a scapegoat for domestic US politics, and China will not stay silent in the face of unfounded accusations from anti-China forces. Despite some in the US hoping for China's "understanding," these tariffs greatly harm China's legitimate development rights and seek to limit the development space of related industries in China. China will definitely take resolute measures to defend its own interests. The US should not be arrogant or harbor any illusions.

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US is a ‘monopoly’

 

While the United States plays the role of the banker similar to the game of Monopoly, the rest of us will be happy for now to remain in the game and not go bankrupt. — Bloomberg

WHETHER you are young or old, it is likely that at one time or another, you would have played a board game called Monopoly.

The rules of the game are simple, with the objective of winning the game by beating your opponents and making them bankrupt.

The whole idea is to build up your “assets” in the board game to make it pricey for other players to continuously pay rent whenever they land on your properties. At the same time, in the game of Monopoly, there is also the banker, who never goes broke.

However, if the bank runs out of money, the banker can issue “I Owe You” notes or IOUs to other players and for whatever amounts that are required by writing the amount on a piece of paper.

These IOUs can be exchanged for cash whenever cash is available, or otherwise, counted as an asset of the player holding them. In essence, the banker can print money and the holders have a claim against the banker. Sounds familiar?

Out of control

Welcome to the world of finance. In real life, some central banks, in particular, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the US government, are simply printing money.

They may not be playing a game like Monopoly but their actions certainly reflect that.

Today, the United States has a total debt amounting to US$34.6 trillion and with the debt ceiling out of the window, the US debt level will just continue to grow, as the past two trillion dollar increase occurred in a space of just 100 days each.

The pace of increase of every US$1 trillion is expected to accelerate very quickly as there are no plans to curtail the growth or any effort to reduce the government’s twin deficits – trade and budget deficits.

Another interesting point of measurement is the growth of the US debt level since February 2019, which has increased by US$12.5 trillion whilst the US gross domestic product (GDP) itself only expanded by US$7.2 trillion.

In essence, in the last five years or so, for every dollar growth of the US economy, the government created 1.7 units of debt.

Forever deficit

Last year, the US budget deficit hit US$1.7 trillion or 6.2% of GDP and this is expected to be sustained at a relatively high level over the next decade and beyond. The Congressional Budget Office in its March 2024 projection is looking at a budget deficit to GDP to hit 5.6% this year before rising to 6.1%, 7.3% and 8.5% in 2034, 2044 and 2054 respectively.

Astronomical by any standards, and by continuously running budget deficits, it suggests that the US debt level will accelerate further over the next 30 years.

In the words, as commented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently, the United States debt level is simply mind-boggling. With higher debt levels, naturally, cost of servicing the debt too will increase. For the month of March alone, the US government spent US$89bil on interest, which on an annualised basis, suggests a figure of more than a trillion dollars or US$120mil every hour.

With the United States sustaining a higher Fed fund rate for a longer period, how does the country pay for this?

You guessed it, and yes, print more money just like the banker in the Monopoly board game writing IOUs.

In fact, the United States government, which raises approximately US$5 trillion a year uses it mostly for social security, healthcare, and debt servicing.

Expenditures related to defence, space programmes, state departments, or even law enforcement agencies are funded via debt. Even aid that it provides to nations or even wore-torn countries is funded via debt. Fewer dollars

With the rise of China and of course the emergence of the euro as a potential reserve currency, the US dollar has seen its share of global reserves held by the central bank shrinking year after year.

Based on the data from the IMF, the US dollar’s share of global reserves has dropped from 72% in the year 2000 to just 57% currently.

Although not elected yet, former US President, Donald Trump, is said to be considering ways to stop other nations from shifting away from using the US dollar by punishing them in one way or the other.

According to a Bloomberg report, these measures include export controls, currency manipulation charges, and tariffs.

Will this ever work and what would this mean to international trade and relationships if Trump is re-elected as President for the second time?

The ”S” word

With inflation at elevated levels, the Fed is in no hurry to cut rates just yet as the core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) print looks to be sticking out like a sore thumb for longer.

In fact, the concern is that the core PCE, which grew by 2.8% in the latest March 2024 data, is not falling fast enough, while the super-core inflation, which is defined as PCE services inflation minus energy and housing, rose by 3.5% year-on-year (y-o-y).

The first quarter of this year’s 2024 GDP growth, which came in well below expectations at just 1.6% annualised rate against the market estimate of a 3.5% y-o-y growth has re-ignited the fear that the United States economy is headed towards stagflation – defined as a period of slow growth, high inflation and of course, rising unemployment, although the Fed chair is quick to dismiss it.

The latest monthly payroll numbers, which came in below expectations and lifted the unemployment rate to 3.9% have added a bit more pressure to the stagflation narrative.

While the Fed would not ring the alarm bell, the market is still saying that the United States economy is headed towards either a soft landing but could quickly become a hard one if rates are not cut soon enough.

As it is, the risk of recession indicator, as seen in the inverted yield curve, has been flashing “recession” for the past two years, but the United States economy continues to chug along, mainly driven by monopoly money.

At the same time, the yield spread between the US treasuries vis-a-vis other major currencies has caused significant gain on the US dollar itself.

Forget about how much the ringgit has lost ground but look at some of the other major currencies too, especially the yen, which has dropped more than 50% from the low of 102.36 to the US dollar in March 2020.

The drop in the yen is not merely due to the yield spread alone but also the massive debts that the Japanese government is presently carrying to the tune of 1,286 trillion yen or US$8.6 trillion, which is just over 217% of its GDP of about 591.4 trillion yen or US$4.2 trillion.

Will history repeat itself on the US dollar when the time comes just like how the yen is being devalued?

Can the US dollar be dethroned?

Short answer – unlikely!

However, if any country, especially those in emerging markets, were to behave like the United States today – twin deficits, unsustainable debt level, and money printing a.k.a. Monopoly money, that country would be doomed.

The local currency would need to be re-based via a devaluation if the market has not already priced that scenario just yet.

However, this would not happen to the US dollar simply because the greenback, for all intent and purpose, remains the reserve currency of the world and the world has not found an alternative yet and may never even find it.

Every other option, be it the euro, yen, yuan, gold, or cryptocurrencies, has its respective shortcomings.

As long as the US dollar is used as a medium of exchange for commodities, trade, and finance, and as the majority reserves of central banks globally, the US dollar remains relevant.

Hence, while the United States plays the role of the banker similar to the game of Monopoly, the rest of us will be happy for now to remain in the game and not go bankrupt.

But how long can the United States keep writing the IOUs? That’s the real question.

Pankaj C. Kumar is a long-time investment analyst. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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