China expects Philippine president’s early visit

From Beijing Xinhua News Agency reports that China expects an early visit by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Arrangements for the visit are now being threshed out by the two countries, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said recently.

As Duterte has often said his foreign policy will be to be friends with as many countries as we can but always in the best interest of the Philippines.

Earlier former President Fidel Ramos and his team former secretaries Raffy Alunan and Domingo Siazon met with Chinese foreign ministry officials in Hong Kong as the first step for the visit. I wonder when President Duterte is planning separate visits to China and Japan next month.

The visits are the first he will make outside Southeast Asia since his election as President of the Philippines.

Chinese officials did not reply to questions on whether the visit will include discussions on the South China Sea dispute.

Chinese Foreign Minister Lu Kung told a routine press briefing “that as long as the two sides have the will to settle their disputes through consultation, there are no difficulties that cannot be overcome.”

Tension between China and the Philippines has risen in recent years over the issue, especially since the former Philippine government initiated a case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013. “An ad hoc arbitral tribunal set up at Manila’s request issued a highly controversial and biased award in July, denying China’s long-standing historical rights in the South China Sea,“added Xinhua.

China has reiterated that it will not accept any proposition or action based on the decision.

Lu said countries in the region have agreed to adhere to a dual-track approach on the South China Sea issue, with disputes to be resolved peacefully through direct negotiations between parties concerned, and to work together to maintain peace and stability.

“We hope countries outside the region will respect the consensus reached by China and countries surrounding the South China Sea,” Lu added.

It will be interesting how the visit will be managed with this background in mind. It will require astute diplomacy that regrettably was not done in the Aquino government.

*** I wonder where the endless hearings on Senator Leila de Lima will lead to? Although it is true that everyone has a right to be heard I think the hearings are taking too long. It reminds me yet again that the right to be heard too can be abused as it is now happening with the de Lima case. She is accused of condoning the shabu factory right inside the Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. She is alleged to have used millions of drug money from drug lord Colangco for her campaign funds in the last election.

With the array of evidence against her I cannot see why the hearings should go on and on. Why is the people’s money being used for such hearings that promote using fake witnesses and false statements. It is also being used to derail Duterte’s campaign against drugs, graft and criminality.

Karma is the word most people use for de Lima’s situation. explains karma (karman) by contrasting it with another Sanskrit word kriya. “The word kriya is the activity along with the steps and effort in action, while karma is the executed action as a consequence of that activity, as well as the intention of the actor behind an executed action or a planned action (described by some scholars. A good action creates good karma, as does good intent. A bad action creates bad karma, as does bad intent.”

“Karma, also refers to a conceptual principle that originated in India, often descriptively called the principle of karma, sometimes as the karma theory or the law of karma.[ In the context of theory, karma is complex and difficult to define. Different schools of Indologists derive different definitions for the karma concept. It comes from ancient Indian texts and defines a causality that may be ethical or non-ethical; ethicization, that is good or bad actions have consequences; and rebirth.

Some Indologists and ordinary layman like myself understand karma as something that explains the present circumstances of an individual with reference to his or her actions in the past. These actions may be those in a person’s current life, or, in some schools of Indian traditions, possibly actions in their past lives; furthermore, the consequences may result in current life, or a person’s future lives. The law of karma operates independent of any deity or any process of divine judgment.

Difficulty in arriving at a definition of karma arises because of the diversity of views among the schools of Hinduism; some, for example, consider karma and rebirth linked and simultaneously essential, some consider karma but not rebirth essential, and a few discuss and conclude karma and rebirth to be flawed fiction.[15] Buddhism and Jainism have their own karma precepts. Thus karma has not one, but multiple definitions and different meanings. It is a concept whose meaning, importance and scope varies between Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other traditions that originated in India, and various schools in each of these traditions. There is an ongoing debate regarding whether karma is a theory, a model, a paradigm, a metaphor, or a metaphysical stance.

Karma theory as a concept, across different Indian religious traditions, shares certain common themes: causality, ethicization and rebirth.” (from Wikipedia)

*** If the biggest news in the world today is the financial crisis sparked by the West led by the US, its counterpoint in the East is how Asia under the aegis of ASEAN plus 3 will gather force. The thrust of that force is to achieve the Asian century. There will be initial difficulties brought about by the crisis but these can be overcome if Asians stick to that goal.