pobla-cion

[pobla-cion]

So a new Dreamworks film came out and it’s called Abominable. Dreamworks partnered with a Chinese company to make this film. On the surface, it seems like a harmless children’s movie that features Chinese culture. But somehow, a scene with a map that contains the “9 dash line” managed to squeeze its way into the film. Because of that It’s actually now banned in Vietnam and in the Philippines. Malaysia didn’t ban the film but removed the map scene. 

Full offense, but we’re REALLY REALLY REALLY DISGUSTED by it and we’re encouraging people not to pay ANYTHING. ZERO. NOTHING. for this movie.

This post is to further explain why the “9 dash line” is such a big deal to us Southeast Asians. Why seeing the 9 dash line ANYWHERE really fucking pisses us off.

I’m a Filipino living in the Philippines, so this is written largely from the Philippine perspective. If you’re a Southeast Asian deeply bothered by this issue, feel free to leave your own opinions, arguments, your country’s own side which I might have missed, etc. As an angry, native Southeast Asian who has to hear about this almost every single day, I would very much appreciate it. This is a very complicated issue, so I did my best to simplify it for everyone to understand. This is just scratching the surface of the issue.

What is the South China Sea?

The South China Sea is a body of water right at the very heart of Southeast Asia. Apart from China, other countries that surround it are Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Brunei.

“South China Sea” was a term coined by English travelers who came to this region many eons ago who wanted to trade with Chinese merchants. They used the term “South China Sea” in order to distinguish it from other bodies of water in Asia. Eventually, that’s is what this area became known as.

In the recent years though, Southeast Asian countries have been abandoning the use of “South China Sea” to refer to the whole thing. This is because we know that certain parts of it is ours, and not China’s. To call all of it South China Sea would not only be misleading, but it would also ignore the rights of Southeast Asian countries over certain parts of it.

The Philippine portion is called the West Philippine Sea. For Indonesians, their portion is called the North Natuna Sea. The Vietnamese refer to their portion as Biển Đông or “Eastern Sea.”

Using “South China Sea” is okay since this is now how it’s most commonly known, but it does leave a bad taste. (Bad taste is such a nice word to describe how we feel about it. South China Sea is actually SUPER CRINGEY to most some of us.) Some countries prefer to refer to their portion using their own terminology as a matter of pride.

Why is the South China Sea so important?

The South China Sea is where most trading within Southeast Asia happens. Ships transporting cargo worth billions of dollars annually pass through the South China Sea to get to certain parts of Southeast Asia. There’s also a lot of natural resources here, especially oil and natural gas. People want to own the South China Sea because they know that utilizing its vast resources will get them big bucks.

Who owns the South China Sea?

It belongs to everyone. We’ve already agreed upon who gets what when we participated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This is a very important treaty which ALL Southeast Asian countries agreed to. The Convention said that each of us owns and can use the body of water near our coastline. So Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, etc. owns the sea near their coast.

Why is it important for us to own our seas?

There are a lot of reasons. Our countries can use its natural resources – like natural gas and oil. Our fishermen can fish safely, knowing that they will be protected by our laws. This part is very important, because most of the communities living near the coast earn their livelihoods through fishing. The fishing industry is huge in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of our people are fishermen and many of them fish in the South China Sea. If you take that away from them, they will have nothing.

What is the 9 dash line, and why is it so problematic?

The “9 dash line” refers to China’s claim on the South China Sea. Basically, China is saying that literally everything in the South China Sea belongs to them. Google the 9 dash line and you will see what I mean by literally fucking everything. This is not a joke, this is legit. When I first heard about it I was like what, but then realized China was actually serious.

According to China, this “9 dash line” came from Chinese maps produced by the Chinese government in the 1940s. Unlike the UNCLOS which was an agreement between ALL Southeast Asian countries INCLUDING China, China, on its own, came up with the “9 dash line” and to this day has been trying to say (to force it into everyone—literally) that they’re right.  

In 2016, the Philippines brought a case with an international arbitral tribunal because China started building military bases over our part of the sea, not only extremely damaging the marine ecosystem, but also harming Southeast Asian fishermen were fishing in that area. This international arbitral tribunal is basically like an international “court” that settles issues on UNCLOS matters. So if there are disagreements about who owns what in this area, this tribunal settles them.

The Philippines argued that the “9 dash line” (the South China Sea belongs to China) has no basis whatsoever, especially because it went against what we all agreed upon under UNCLOS (that the South China Sea belongs to everyone). China was also damaging the marine ecosystem in that area by engaging in harmful fishing practices and further harming already endangered marine species. Vietnam supported our case. China on the other hand, refused to participate at all in the proceedings.

Who won the case?

The Philippines won the case. The Tribunal said, in a 501 paged ruling, that the “9 dash line” is illegal and has no basis. China has to respect international law. And according to international law, this area does not belong to China alone. China can’t just claim that it’s their territory. Parts of it belong to the Southeast Asian countries. There are also parts of it that do not belong to anyone because these are international waters. China can’t just do whatever it wants to it and ban everyone else from using it. WE have the rights to it too.

So you won. Why is this still an issue?

Although we won, China continues to refuse to abide by this decision. The construction of the military bases hasn’t stopped. They’re still literally building islands in our waters. 

Neither has the bullying of our fishermen stopped. China continues to claim that this is their territory and has been consistently banning non-Chinese vessels from the area. 

Just this year, a large Chinese vessel practically rammed and sank a Philippine fishing boat, and left the Filipino crew stranded in the literal middle of the sea. Vietnamese fishermen who miraculously were also in the area, saved them right in the nick of time. (To all you Vietnamese people, a BILLION THANK YOUS is not enough.) This is not the first time this happened. Vietnamese fishermen have been bullied for the longest time. “Bullied” meaning they are literally driven out of the area, shot at with large cannons, and generally banned from fishing here.

You have to understand that these fishermen are doing nothing. They’re riding small boats fit only for fishing, without weapons AT ALL. They are practically defenseless. When put up against HUGE military vessels, they are practically nothing. There are so many cases of these that it’s now become a normal thing. Of course these kinds of news reports make us fucking livid, but the sad thing is, because it happens SO OFTEN, it’s just not a surprise anymore.

Here are a few recent happenings in this area:

China bans fishing boats from the area, but courageous Vietnamese fishermen decide that they just don’t give a fuck.

This is a news report that came out months ago on the Philippine fishermen who were harassed by Chinese military vessels in the area.

Here’s a video showing the disparity in the treatment of US aircrafts and Filipino aircrafts who were flying over a reef in the South China Sea (a reef that’s a gazillion miles away from China and close to Philippine shore). Basically the Chinese are so respectful to the American pilots but are like !@#$!@#FAWE!@# to the Philippine aircraft. I’m just like.... who the fuck do you take us for?

Why make a big deal out of a few seconds of appearance in a movie?

There is an extreme attention to detail when you make movies. Every scene is carefully planned and agreed upon for a long period of time, especially animated movies because you’re creating everything from scratch. The producers and writers, etc deliberated to put the nine dash line in this scene (NOTE: this is the “newest” version they introduced sometime in 2013 to 2014 which includes Taiwan, effectively making it a “ten dash line” which is literally even MORE problematic because first, the inclusion of Taiwan raises a whole different issue with respect to Taiwan’s sovereignty, and second, this isn’t the same “map” they’ve been using against our territorial claims for the last decades. The older versions didn’t include Taiwan. The older versions are what show up when you google “9 dash line.” Notice that they don’t include Taiwan as opposed to the new one. It shows that China is making up their claims as they go.)  They shelled out funds amounting to millions to put it there. Artists and art directors that worked on this movie conceptualized this map, and deliberated on what it would look like for weeks if not months. They drew it up, colored it in, watched it several times over and over, ETC. Some articles even wrote that the producers really put a lot of importance in little details.

They COULD HAVE deleted that scene. They could have chosen to show a regular map (which honestly would have made even more sense because ordinary people don’t randomly keep maps with fucking TERRITORIAL CLAIMS on them like what the fuck. If this is actually a thing in China, please tell me, because I literally don’t know.) But there was was a conscious, informed decision to keep this nine dash line there. They chose to keep it there for whatever reason. 

Probably this reason is because the movie was partially funded by a Chinese company, Pearl Studio. Pearl Studio is owned by several Chinese investment companies. So basically what this company does is to fund Chinese-themed films. Which is totally fine. Like, I do appreciate Chinese culture and I don’t have anything against showing Chinese culture in mainstream media. But if you consciously pay western companies to show your illegal, baseless claim, don’t expect us Southeast Asians just to shut up about it. Sorry, but selling your map IN ANY FORM to western media is toeing a fucking line. Be prepared for the backlash.

In conclusion,

All of us are unanimous in saying that all the claims China is asserting are BULL FUCKING SHIT. At this point, we borderline HATE the Chinese government. China does NOT know how to respect international agreements, and at the very basic level, it does not know how to respect us Southeast Asians. They treat us like puppets. We’re not trying to say that China doesn’t have rights in the area, THEY DO. What we’re saying is--STAY IN YOUR FUCKING LANE. The South China Sea also belongs to Southeast Asian countries and NOT JUST TO CHINA.

If you’re not living in Southeast Asia, please do us a favor and read up as much as you can on it before you make a comment or dismiss this issue as not being important enough to merit a discussion. In fact, China has been actively trying to stop people from talking about this issue or questioning their claims. China has been injecting billions of money to fund projects of Southeast Asian governments in an attempt to get us to be subservient to them. It’s a running joke in the Philippines that our current administration is a Chinese lapdog. Our governments might be, but WE, THE PEOPLE, AREN’T. So yes, please, let’s keep talking about this map and this issue because more people need to know what China is doing here in Southeast Asia.

In Southeast Asia, this is a very touchy, very complicated issue. This is something that affects us very deeply. So before you judge us, please understand there are issues that non-SEANs won’t be able to grasp fully through reading posts on the internet. This is one of them.