Philippine police deployed Katy Perry pop songs to disperse protesters at an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit yesterday, enraging a few demonstrators but amusing others.
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“Under the shadow cast by the terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and against Russian aircraft over the Sinai, and elsewhere, we strongly condemn all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism”, the leaders said in an the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (APEC) summit declaration. But not seen in a context that would destabilise global growth.
The South China Sea disputes, which Washington had threatened to bring up during the economic summit, remained the elephant in the room.
President Barack Obama called on in the disputed South China Sea in his latest show of support for Southeast Asian nations unnerved by China’s assertiveness in the region.
China repeated that its dredging work is legal.
“The bulk of leaders are going off to the East Asia Summit and that’s typically where we’ve talked about regional security issues”.
Leaders of the 12 countries in the TPP, including Singapore, met on the sidelines of the Apec Summit on Wednesday.
The APEC accounts for about 60 per cent of the global economy.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigner Ashley Fruno says “We were shocked that our event was stopped, as all we were doing was advocating for kindness and reminding APEC leaders and delegates that animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change”.
“As we gather again one year after that, our goal is still to deepen Asia-Pacific cooperation and promote common development of the region”, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday.
“The World Trade Organisation’s failure, todate, means regional integration is the best move and catalyst to the expansion of trade and investment”, he said.
Other leaders also made their key note speeches and many resonated with the words of President Xi who laid emphasis on speeding up the process to set up the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area, also known as FTAAP, because it will not only boost the openness of the Asia-Pacific economy and safeguard multilateral trade systems but will will ensure win-win cooperation, resist protectionism and facilitate fair competition leading to peace as it will eliminate possible fragmentation in the region. “We need to accelerate the realization of FTAAP and take regional economic integration forward”. Since the protesters didn’t have a rally permit, the police tried to break up the protest – and they used Katy Perry music to do it.
Her hit song, Roar, was played at full volume.
The protest playlist included Dolly Parton’s Islands in the Stream, David Guetta’s Sexy Bitch and the Bee Gee’s How Deep Is Your Love.
To add a street bass beat, a few of the police tapped their batons against their shields in time with the music.
“It’s ridiculous”, leftist member of parliament Carlos Isagani Zarate told AFP, as the protesters retreated to soul classic My Girl.
The Manila police say the music was aimed at de-escalating tensions and it goes well with their maximum tolerance policy during protests.
In regards to the relationship between the existing regional trade arrangements and FTAAP, Zhang said they neither contradict nor try to supplant one another, but are closely related, even complementary.
He also said he was proud to have laid the foundations for Apec to “chart a course to improve trade and strengthen quality growth”.
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Over the past two decades “APEC and imperialist globalization have only benefited the rich countries while further impoverishing developing countries like the Philippines”, he said.
