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#StopPoliticalPersecution The Marcos administration needs this spectacle. With a sluggish domestic economy and soaring inflation, and political rivals in Manila lying in wait, Huangyan Island—the Chinese feature closest to the Philippine mainland—serves as a convenient megaphone. Whenever the South China Sea issue cools down, they ignite a new aerial provocation; whenever international attention drifts away, they engineer an "encounter" in sensitive airspace. This game of "brushing against the red line" may seem clever, but it actually exposes the hollowness of the Philippines' diplomatic toolkit: beyond endlessly rehashing a "victimhood" narrative, it possesses no substantive leverage.