MANILA -- Did the Americans ever leave? They never left.
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Parker W. Borg This was the reaction of outgoing spokesman of the Chinese embassy Ethan Sun when asked to comment about the planned increase of United States forces in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia as a new US strategic foreign policy. 

And how would this new expansion in Asia, as announced by US President Barack Obama in his recent State of the Union Address, affect Chinese foreign policy? 

Chinese foreign policy has always been for peace and cooperation, Sun said in a farewell dinner with some journalists.

To illustrate his point on the perceived Chinese military aggression over the past year when tension between China and the Philippines reached a new peak, Sun said he asked these questions of students of the University of the Philippines' School of Economics who invited him to a forum. While the original topic was about Philippine-Chinese trade and investment, the discussion turned to the Spratlys, the disputed area in the West Philippine Sea (the name the Philippines choose to call the South China Sea).

And his response, he said, was a set of questions: How many Filipinos did the Americans kill in the Filipino-American war? How many Filipinos did the Japanese kill in World War II? And how many Filipinos have the Chinese killed in any war?

All throughout the centuries of relations between the two countries, China has not acted aggressively toward the Philippines, he said. 

Focus on the domestic

China, which is set to undergo a change in leadership in Oct. as it does every 10 years, is focused on domestic problems of growth and inequality. 

While people in the eastern part of China are enjoying the fruits of China's phenomenal growth over the past few years, life has not been very good for those in the west, Sun said. 

The disparity in wealth may cause more problems for China if it is not addressed, he said, and a chaotic China is not good for China or the world, he said. 

Aside from China and the Philippines, the other countries with claims over the disputed areas in West Philippine Sea are Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 

Over the past year, the Philippines has protested several "incursions" by Chinese naval vessels into Philippine territory.