Phl-China ties becomes warmer

The Association for the Philippines- China Understanding (APCU) on Thursday recognized the efforts of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration in maintaining the good bilateral relations between the Philippines and China amid deepening friendship and mutual understanding.

“From this warming relationship, the Philippines has harvested economic benefits today. China is the largest trading partner of the Philippines, not only its number one partner but the country’s number one source of imports, number two market for our exports,” APCU chairperson Raul Lambino said.

He made the remark during his group’s virtual forum, which tackled the opportunities and challenges in PhilippineChina relations under the new administration.

China, he added, is the country’s second-largest source of tourists and a major foreign investor and source of loans for the “Build, Build, Build” program.

“While conflicts in the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea remain, the Duterte presidency forged friendly and pragmatic relations with China on other issues,” Lambino said.

“Today, the signals from Beijing are looking positive,” he added, noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent Vice President Juan Kian to the inauguration ceremony of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“This was seen as a reaffirmation of how much China values its ties with the

Philippines,” he said.

Meanwhile, in his presentation, Wilson Lee Flores — an APCU awardee — stressed that China and the Philippines are “ideal economic partners.”

“The Philippines is a developing economy needing modern infrastructures like trains, bridges, airports, dams, seaports, highways, while China is an industrialized economy with capital, technologies, excess steel, infrastructure prowess,” Flores said.

Flores said the Philippines and China are complementary in stages of development and resources as the former has abundant mineral resources while the latter has industrial technologies and largescale manufacturing.

“Instead of becoming a pawn in superpower rivalries, independent foreign policy and the neutral Philippines can be middleman, mediator, and peacemaker between the East and West, between China and America,” he said during his presentation.

Instead of becoming a pawn in superpower rivalries, independent foreign policy and the neutral Philippines can be middleman, mediator, and peacemaker between the East and West, between China and America.