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When the Dragon Spreads Its Wings
Millennia, the Dragon stayed at home,
Consumed its own, kept dissidence at bay,
Until it felt a gnawing urge to roam,
To make its global domination play.
With Belt and Road, the Dragon stretched its limbs
And made its presence known across the world.
While needy nations pandered to its whims,
Its devious manoeuvrings unfurled.
An infrastructure project here and there
At interest rates so high repayment doomed
The borrower to debts that lay them bare.
Yet close to home another battle loomed!
The Taiwan and Moluccan Straits constrain
The traffic in the vast South China Sea
Where fishing grounds and oil and gas remain
Not fully tapped, and ripe for setting free.
The creature’s minions built a naval fleet
To ride upon this much disputed sea
And cherry-picked a chart with which to cheat
Its neighbours, claiming, “All belongs to me!”
The Dragon, flouting international law,
Stuck out its bovine tongue and lapped the brine:
“This map, with nine dash-lines unlocks the door,”
It growled. “What lies within those lines is mine.”
But law is law. The prize for which it pines
Got stymied by the international court.
Yet avarice, in China’s eyes still shines—
With risk this busy waterway is fraught.
A stealthy land-and-sea grab’s underway
On islands, reefs and atolls strewn about
These waters, with the Dragon holding sway,
For none can thwart its all-ensnaring snout.
An island’s now a military base;
A reef, shored up, now sits above the waves;
An atoll’s now a harbour to encase
Militia vessels manned by Sino-knaves.
The Philippines and Vietnam bear the brunt
Of maritime aggression, while the Thais
And Myanmar are cowed by China’s stunt
And cringe before the Dragon’s martial rise.
A trawler’s rammed, a fishing crew’s abused
Near Scarborough Shoal, the Spratly Isles and more
Mere crumbs of land, for China has refused
To stay its loud, antagonistic roar.
The Dragon’s stretched its wings and tried its claws,
It’s left its weaker neighbours sorely vexed
Despite the stamp of international laws;
Which begs the question. Taiwan? Is she next?
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Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles.
This is an amazing amount of information disseminated in poetic form regarding the actions and aspirations of a most upsetting world power. Poetry can do amazing things! Well done, Paul.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Brian.
Tomorrow Never Dies, the 1997 James Bond film with Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh, involves a build up of tension in the South China Sea and near war over Chinese sovereign integrity. It also involves a megalomaniac newspaper proprietor based on Rupert Murdoch, played by the excellent Jonathan Pryce, who manufactures his own news. How prophetic is that?
Excellent, and very informative. I do not believe many people have any idea about the moves China has made in Asia and Europe. The question in my mind: will China move on Taiwan before our election in November, while Biden is still in the White House?
The Belt and Road initiative has just celebrated 10 years. Indeed, it’s a stealthy way to get your claws into a country where often much of the money has been embezzled by leaders who are no longer in power, leaving the new government and its people to keep up the larger and larger amounts needed to repay loans and interest.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Phil.
Important poem on a vast issue, Paul. And smoothly metered
with formal clarity in expression, by adopting the personified Dragon as the strong active agent without much opposition. I first read about the Belt and Road in a series by The Epoch Times, which caught my attention because the link was right above the Comments for poems. If I recall correctly, the series was about thirty articles long, so it took time and perseverance to complete. I was certainly shocked at the underhanded tactics used to gain control of transportation and trade in weaker nations, but later these were directly confirmed by an African friend, who had witnessed the process in his country. In fact, the Dragon made use of international law for as long as it could, to take away the rights and wealth of others under the same law. It is ironic that in Chinese art, the dragon is fearsome as a guardian of the Buddhist dharma expressed in law. Your taking up points-at-law is one of the most pertinent issues your poem explicates, particularly in relation to the island-taking and island-making in the South China Sea.
30 articles! That is indeed perseverance, Margaret.
The US has had a couple of run-ins with the ‘Sino-knaves’ in the South China Sea and it’s certainly a future (if not the next) flashpoint.
What a world!
Thanks for reading and commenting.
This is a timely and well-designed poem on China’s continued military threat to her neighboring states and particularly to Taiwan. When I was studying at the US Army Russian Institute I learned that China maintained a map that included all of eastern Russia as one of its major irredentist claims. I remember the Mongol hordes once made it all the way to Krakow before receding. In one of their earlier dynasties, they cleared an entire province of trees to build boats to carry horses, men and carts for conquering other territories before also receding back to their native lands. Once more they are in the buildup phase and the world must beware their intentions.
China has ominously put a tenth dash-line on the notorious ‘Nine Dash-Line Map’, implying a claim to Taiwan.
Oh, for the innocence of childhood, when all Taiwan meant to me were substandard plastic novelty favours from cheap Christmas crackers. Now Taiwan’s a high-tech chip maker, and a valuable prize.
Thanks for reading, Roy.
I think you’ve coined a new expression with “Sino-knaves”. Margaret is correct – it is very smoothly metered. China always has an ulterior motive with their belt & road initiatives. They typically want to establish forward military bases and/or suck a country dry of its natural resources; and, as you indicate in your poem, the recipient ends up indebted to China. Unable to repay the loan, they’re subsequently owned by China. No one in our government seems too concerned about China’s drive to establish a footprint in Cuba; also, from what I’ve read, the latest is Antigua in the Carribean.
‘Sino-knaves’ took ages to think up. Luckily ‘knaves’ and ‘navy’ are close in sound and convey the meaning.
Twenty-five years ago, I spotted Chinese setting up small grocery stores in Zambia. They learn the language and become part of the local landscape, much as we Brits did in the Age of Empire. In Sudan, however, the influence is both Russian and Chinese, the West having more or less abdicated.
A realignment is going on and the West has had (or still has) its eye off the ball.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Cheryl.
This is an informative and smoothly written work, Paul. Thank you for reminding the readership of the China threat.
In the sixth stanza, why does the dragon have a bovine tongue?
Well spotted, Mary. I was wondering if someone would ask.
The maritime area traced out by the Nine Dash-Line on the map that China points to to boost its territorial claims in the South China Sea, is locally known as the ‘Cow’s Tongue Line’ due to the area’s shape.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Unfortunately, the Chinese Belt-and-Road Initiative is supported by some groups in North America that have a powerful anti-Anglo-American animus. I’m thinking especially of the Rising Tide Foundation in Canada
The Belt and Road Initiative has really shored-up China’s allies since so many countries are now beholden to the People’s Republic of China. The politics on Taiwan is going to play out soon, I feel.
Paul, it long been rumoured that China wants to annex Taiwan. But as the two-headed Obama/Brandon monster twiddled its thumbs as Russia annexed Georgia, the Crimea, and the Ukraine, there is also the rumour that their inaction has emboldened Russia and China to begin maneuvering their militaries to annex the shipping lanes of northern Canada, which Canada does not have the manpower to defend.
The Ukraine is running low on soldiers, and has requested aid from NATO in the form of 1 million military-grade drones to defend itself against Russian aggression. Countries generally do not need to have “boots-on-the-ground” when they can have drones in the air, which is why Canada has recently announced it is building a new military headquarters “to control and operate the military’s future fleet of drones.”
Ottawa Citizen (April 11th, 2024) – “Military drone installation to be built in Ottawa – DND says exact location will remain secret”: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-drone-installation-to-be-built-in-ottawa-dnd-says-exact-location-will-remain-secret
But rather than those drones being used to defend the border, they will probably be used by Canada’s two-headed Liberal/NDP government as artificially intelligent minders that are programmed to knock on the doors of Canadians, in order to talk with them about why they posted ten years ago at Facebook and Twitter that climate change is a hoax.
What is your opinion on the idea of President Trump returning to the White House, along with him convincing NATO to fund in the USA the building of massive drone factories, and then shipping billions of military-grade drones to permanently patrol in a synchronized manner the borders of Taiwan, the Ukraine, Israel, and northern Canada, as well as the southern border of the USA?
From Lannie.
Politics aside, this is where we are now in the South China Sea. I don’t know the ins and outs of most of the issues you’ve raised.
I have, however, seen the expansion of China’s influence throughout Africa over the past 25 years, and it amazes me how the rest of the world (apart from Russia) has sat on its hands until only recently.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Lannie.