Gone evidently are the days of sleeping by the Chinese dragon. Back in the 1920s all the way to the 1930s when the great Chinese territory was apportioned among Western imperialists, it was not uncommon for restaurants in Shanghai to carry a sign at the entrances that read: 'Dogs and Chinese not allowed.' In these modern times, the sleeping Chinese dragon had long awakened from amazing forbearance to assert Chinese pride tit-for-tat against Western arrogance.

In the Indo-Pacific region, the hegemonic designs of the United States do continue to manifest in concert with its traditional allies, but its effort in this regard on the military front can no longer prosper without meeting with strong Chinese deterrents. Of late, the United States' conduct of its sponsored freedom of navigation operations (Fonops) saw the participation of the G7 or Group of Seven, which includes Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Japan, in an obvious show of force to counter the increasing Chinese presence in the South China Sea. And it is always at the instance of the United States through its local cohorts led by the tandem of retired associate justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario to seize upon every opportunity to fan anti-Chinese rage among Filipinos. The gambit is evidently to create a war hysteria that would justify US military intervention in the otherwise regional dispute between China and certain members of the Asean, the Philippines included, over the South China Sea. While the US has not succeeded in intensifying the military conflict to a degree beyond bare bullying, China has gone on undeterred in building forward military bases out of the islands, reefs and maritime features it has occupied in the region. This should serve as a warning to American hegemonic intentions that they can no longer push on without encountering determined Chinese countermeasures.