Exiled Philippine communist leader Sison blasts ‘greedy’ China over sea dispute

Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison has turned on his former benefactor, China, amid the South China Sea territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila.

“China is obviously being greedy, claiming 90 per cent of the South China Sea,” Sison told the South China Morning Post in his office in Utrecht, the Netherlands, 43 years after his fledgling rebellion was secretly sent weapons and cash by China’s late leader, Mao Zedong.

Sison called China’s territorial claims “foolish” and “false” and added that “it would be like India claiming the whole of the Indian Ocean or Mexico claiming all or most of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Sison denied this was a major change in the party’s attitude towards the dispute. “The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has been consistent in asserting national independence and maintaining the territorial integrity and even when there is a coincidence with regard to the national government on territory, the CPP does not mind having the same position as the national government,” he said

“Because if you don’t defend the territory, nothing might be left if you neglect it.”

When Sison broke away from the old Philippine communist party to form his own, his new group - the CPP and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA) - adopted Mao’s protracted people’s war.