China sure has a strange way of making friends. On Monday, China sent 16 aircraft belonging to the People's Liberation Army Air Force into the airspace of Malaysia's maritime zone. And they flew within 60 nautical miles, or 111km, off Sarawak.
Now that is an intrusion in any country's book. And it wasn't a mistake. If it were, one doesn't commit the same mistake 16 times. They were on a planned mission to intrude into Malaysia's airspace.
Malaysia is right to call it a "suspicious" mission. Here is why. One, the planes were those of China's air force. Admittedly, there is freedom of overflight over the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but not for military exercises. Two, Malaysia's permission was not sought. Three, none of the 16 planes contacted the regional air traffic control despite being instructed several times to do so.
This left Malaysia no choice but to scramble its air force jets to conduct visual inspection. They were unmistakably Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft with Chinese characteristics. Malaysia is suitably disturbed by China's latest move. It has all the signs of aggression.
And yet the response of China's embassy here reads like a holding statement from a crisis management handbook. An embassy spokesman put it thus to Reuters: planes were conducting routine training flights and "strictly abided by" international law without violating airspace of other countries.
Really? Which international law allows intrusion into the maritime zone of a country? There cannot be one international law for China and one for others. We know China is a superpower, but it must not mistake might for right.
Such a boilerplate response is of no help to Malaysia or countries around the world whose attention has been fixed on China's growing aggressive behaviours. Muscling out smaller nations isn't a behaviour consistent with claims of a rule-based nation.
If China continues with its aggressive behaviour, then Beijing must be prepared to lose "friends". Malaysia's Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin puts it well: Having friendly diplomatic relations doesn't mean that Malaysia will compromise its national security. Well said.
Malaysia isn't the only country China is "unfriending". As recently as March 7, military patrols of the Philippines have been reporting more than 200 Chinese boats at Whitsun Reef, approximately 320km west of Palawan Island within the Philippines's EEZ, according to Al Jazeera.
For weeks, the April 6 report says, Manila has been calling on Beijing to withdraw what the Philippines calls "maritime militia" from its EEZ, citing the definition of the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague.
But to China, which claims 80 per cent of the South China Sea in opposition to rival claims by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei et al, they are "fishing vessels" and have a right to shelter there in bad weather. China didn't give a convincing answer to the Philippines like it hasn't to the intrusion into Malaysian airspace on Monday.
What China has given though are 16 ways of how it is "unfriending" Malaysia. China wants the world to know that it is, unlike the United States, a nation that subscribes to the rule-based order. Granted, the US only abides by international law when it suits it.
Beijing can't do what the US does and yet claim to be different. If China wants its Southeast Asian neighbours to believe that it is different, then Beijing must act differently.