According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on July 1st local time, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that China has imposed sanctions on former Philippine senator Tornentino.

The official reason given by our country is that Tornentino, a certain anti-China politician, has taken a series of malicious actions for his own selfish interests in issues involving China. These actions have not only harmed China's interests but also deliberately undermined Sino-Philippine relations. In order to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, the Chinese government has decided to impose sanctions on former Philippine senator Tornentino, who has shown bad behavior in matters related to China, prohibiting him from entering mainland China and Hong Kong and Macao.

Former Philippine Senator Tornentino

Who is Senator Tornentino?

Senator Tornentino is a loyal follower of the current Philippine President Marcos and an ardent anti-China figure. He has participated in and led a series of anti-China events and any activities that could help ease Sino-Philippine relations.

For example, on May 5th this year, he presided over a hearing held by the Philippine Maritime and Maritime Zone Committee, aimed at accusing a Chinese public relations company located in Makati, the central city of the Philippines. The accusation was that the company employed "water soldiers" to spread various false information online that defamed the Philippines and its president, Marcos, and also "regularly submitted briefings to a certain official department of China and the Philippines."

To prove his innocence and protect the reputation of Chinese businessmen and his company, Li, the Chinese businessman, left his wife, who was suffering from cancer, and traveled thousands of miles to attend the hearing in the Philippines to defend himself, stating that he was a businessman, only responsible for public relations activities, and not involved in politics. Li's speech also reflected the sentiments of many Chinese businessmen in the Philippines.

It is clear to everyone that this is a comprehensive exclusion of China orchestrated by the Marcos government. It should be noted that the Philippines and China are neighboring countries across the sea. In 2024, the trade volume between China and the Philippines exceeded 500 billion RMB, which is considered as "political coldness but economic warmth." Logically, with such close bilateral trade, the Philippines should maintain good bilateral relations with China. However, due to the continuous incitement and agitation by anti-China figures like Tornentino under the leadership of Marcos, the Sino-Philippine bilateral relations have been greatly damaged. This is the reason for China's recent sanctions against Tornentino.

Philippines cannot do without trade with China

Sanctioning Tornentino is actually a warning shot.

We also understand that Tornentino's main boss is the Philippine President Marcos. Once Marcos falls, the current anti-China policy of the Philippines will collapse. Therefore, this sanction against Tornentino is actually a warning to Marcos.

It should be noted that the Philippine president can only serve one term, and the person most likely to win the next Philippine presidential election is Sara Duterte, the daughter of the former president Duterte and the current vice president of the Philippines.

Marcos knows that if Sara takes office, not only will he change his anti-China policy, but he may even face reckoning, just like the people of the Philippines once held his father, old Marcos, accountable. For this reason, he has already started to persecute the Duterte family. For example, it is well known that he had the elderly Duterte put in the Hague court and made various accusations against Sara. The accusations against Sara were also actively promoted by Tornentino.

In early June, Tornentino directly released a timetable for the lightning impeachment of Vice President Sara on the radio, trying to get rid of her quickly. Behind this, there must be the push from the Philippine President Marcos.

For Marcos, the persecution of the Duterte family has continued up to now, but instead of achieving results, it has greatly increased the support rate for the Duterte family. It should be noted that in the mid-term elections this year, Duterte received 660,000 votes while in prison, far exceeding his opponents, and was undeniably elected mayor of Davao City, indicating the public's support is on Duterte's side. As for the impeachment of the Philippine Vice President Sara, it currently looks like a farce and will not result in anything.

The core of President Marcos' policies is one thing: pro-US and anti-China

Marcos' anti-China policies will fail.

Marcos holds power, but he has no support from the Filipino people on the issue of being anti-China. Even in the persecution of the Duterte family, he has suffered repeated defeats. The root cause is that Marcos' policies are not popular among the people.

As is well known, since Marcos took office, there have been multiple conflicts between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, even pushing the two countries to the brink of war. Originally, Marcos hoped to create trouble for China in the South China Sea, which would allow him to show loyalty to the United States and gain considerable aid, and also take advantage of the opportunity to occupy several islands and reefs.

But the result was a firm counterattack by China to safeguard its maritime sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Philippines lost both in terms of people and face, and more importantly, the United States provided no substantial assistance throughout, only empty promises.

However, Marcos has been going further and further down the road of being anti-China and pro-US, and is already unable to turn back. For this reason, he recently conducted joint exercises with Japan in the South China Sea and even signed the "Mutual Access Agreement" with Japan, clearly intending to bring in foreign forces to escalate the South China Sea issue.

But the problem is that the comprehensive strength and naval power of the Philippines are nowhere near the level of China. With the current strength of the People's Liberation Army, even if the Philippines brings in Japan, let alone the US military, they cannot match China within the second island chain. That is to say, from the perspective of national strength and military confrontation, the Philippines is bound to lose.

China and the Philippines have completely different levels of comprehensive strength

From an economic perspective, the Philippines is a resource export-oriented country, and its main export destinations for products such as seafood, fruits, and rubber are China. Economic and trade cooperation with China is an important engine for the Philippines' domestic economic development. This field is impossible for the Philippines to decouple from. Therefore, even though the Philippines and China are so confrontational in the South China Sea, the Philippines still maintains a "political coldness but economic warmth" status with China.

Militarily, the Philippines cannot match China; economically, it is dependent on China; and more importantly, even the United States, which is strong, has compromised with China on tariff issues, and in several Sino-Philippine South China Sea conflicts, the United States has remained silent and dared not help. In domestic political struggles, Marcos has gradually fallen behind.

This means that Marcos' anti-China policies have been comprehensively crushed, with no hope of victory. With China starting to sanction these anti-China leaders in the Philippines, the foundation of Marcos' anti-China policies has begun to waver. If he does not turn back, when he leaves office, he will be held accountable by all sides!

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7521959482054738495/

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