Foreign Digest: Philippines and China, Kosovo and Bosnia, and Poland

Philippines and Communist China: The Philippines last week removed a barrier on one of the disputed Spratley Islands that had been set up as a navigational obstacle by Communist China against Filipino fishermen and to reinforce the Chinese claim to the island. The Spratleys are disputed between China (and also the Republic of China on Taiwan), which claim most of the South China Sea, and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, which each claim some of the islands. Every State has a presence on at least one of the islands. The Economic Exclusion zone of the Philippines, with its fishing rights, extends to the island claimed by China. At stake in the South China Sea also are mineral rights, particularly for oil. Kosovo and Bosnia: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced last week that it is increasing its peacekeeping force presence in Kosovo after a deadly attack by ethnic Serbs against Kosovar police. Kosovo broke away from Serbia after a war in 1999, following the breakup of the former Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in 1991. Yugoslavia and then its rump, Serbia, was led by its last Communist leader who fomented ethnic hatreds in the diverse countries and caused multiple wars and atrocities. Serbia had massed troops on the border with Kosovo, whose independence it does not recognize, unlike the United States and most European States, but withdrew some today after NATO members had warned it. There are a small minority of Serbs, who are Slavs and Orthodox Christians, in northern Kosovo I posted about this summer. Kosovo is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, who are predominately Muslim with some Orthodox Christians. Meanwhile in another former Yugoslav Republic, Bosnia and Herzogivina, the ethnic Serbian Republic within it that was formed within it in 1995 after the bloody war of independence is again threatening secession. The other constituent Bosnian Republic is a confederation of Croats (who are kin with Serbs, but are Roman Catholic), and Bosniaks (who are Muslim Slavs). Poland: A million Poles rallied in Warsaw, Poland today in opposition to the far-right nationalist authoritarian government of Poland and in support of representative government ahead of parliamentary elections next week. Former President and European Union head Donald Tusk leads the conservative party in the elections that are expected to be close. Poland is an ally of the United States as a member of NATO and against the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Poland was a Communist satellite State of the Soviet Union, which the current tyrannical leader of the Russian Federation, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, is trying to reconstitute. The current Polish Government had supported Ukraine until a recent dispute over grain exports. It is also part of an anti-migrant axis with Hungary.