Tokyo, Japan – President Aquino drew a parallel between present-day China’s moves in the South China Sea and Germany’s actions in the months before the outbreak of World War II, in a speech before business leaders here Wednesday in Tokyo
‘’I’m an amateur student of history and I’m reminded of… how Germany was testing the waters and what the response was by various other European powers,’’ he said referring to Germany’s territorial conquests before World War II.
‘’They tested the waters and they were ready to back down if, for instance in that aspect, France said (to back down). ‘But unfortunately, up to the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, the annexation of the entire country of Czechoslovakia, nobody said stop,” Aquino said.
‘’If somebody said stop to Hitler at that point in time, or to Germany at that time, would we have avoided World War II?’’
He made his comments as disquiet grows over the quickening pace of China’s land reclamation program in international waters, including its construction of a runway long enough for large military planes.
MANILA BULLETIN
