Wednesday, May 16, 2012

China’s propaganda war

The most popular Filipino in China today is “a retired investment and merchant banker, a retired Certified Public Accountant, and a retired economist who loves to dabble in history and political science, among many other interests”. His name is “Victor N. Arches II” and he is the reported author of an op-ed article that appeared in the Manila Standard Today on April 28, 2012. The article, “It belongs to China”, has been reproduced in its entirety in hundreds, if not thousands, of print publications and online news sites all over China.

“Even Filipino admits Huangyan Island belongs to China!” is typical of the introduction to the article  in English or in Chinese Pinyin character.

Just who exactly is this “Victor N. Arches II”? Ever since it appeared in the Manila Standard Today, I have been scouring the Internet to find out who he is anything but I found nothing. I could not even find a single Filipino with that surname. The closest I got was a “Victor Arch” from Indonesia who graduated from a university in Jakarta in 1994 but his postings in Facebook are in Bahasa Indonesia.

He could be a real person but if he had written an article in the past, it would surely have surfaced in the Internet. If he graduated from any college or university in the Philippines or if he ever worked as a CPA in the Philippines, his name would invariably have appeared somewhere in the Internet and a search engine would have surely tracked it.

It is also suspicious that he would use “II” instead of “Jr.” which is what most Filipinos are accustomed to.
My suspicion about the true identity of the author was also aroused by the style and substance of the article which was uncannily similar to the way Chinese articles have dealt with the subject.

Read more here or more South China Sea news here.

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