THIS MAKES A LOT OF SENSE! The Philippines has to stand up to - TopicsExpress

THIS MAKES A LOT OF SENSE! The Philippines has to stand up to Chinas gray-zone challenges in the hotly contested South China Sea, instead of only reacting to its behavior. Blair, who was in the US Navy for 34 years, urged the Philippines and other claimant states to say, Wait a minute! These are things that matter to us. These are our interests. Together we are stronger than you are. These are not things that we hand over to you just because your [gross domestic product] goes up 10 percent a year, Blair said. Still, rival claimants cannot simply make concessions to a country as it grows in power, Blair believes. We have to figure out how to counter those actions, he said.