China envoy looks forward to meeting with Duterte to settle maritime dispute

Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte is “a strong man of principle” who clearly exhibits the type of leadership that the Chinese government would like to work with to improve relations between China and the Philippines, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said yesterday.

Speaking at the handover of donations from the Chinese Embassy

in Manila to the University of Philippines regarding the losses of UP in a fire last month, Ambassador Zhao said he looks forward to sitting down with him to talk of ways to settle the two countries’ maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

The ambassador said the two-year timetable set down by Duterte for the settlement of the dispute is actually too long. “Let me quote what Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, said: ‘Ten thousand years are too long. Seize the moment, seize the hour.’ I would say that two years is too long. Seize the moment, seize the hour,” the ambassador said.

With Duterte’s expected assumption to the country’s highest position at the end of next month, Ambassador Zhao said, he was confident that the relationship between the Philippines and China can only “get better.”

“We are glad that the president-elect has already opened the option for direct bilateral negotiation talks and we welcome that,” he said. “It has always been China’s policy to settle disputes and differences through bilateral channels. We are looking forward to working with the incoming president and his team to explore the pos- sibility of returning to bilateral talks.”

Speaking about his recent meeting with Duterte in Davao, the Chinese diplomat said the incoming Philippine president raised the issue about the fishermen who are seriously affected by the long-running dispute between the two countries. This clearly “demonstrated his concern for the poor people,” the ambassador said.

“The essence of diplomacy is about the interest of the people,” Zhao said… “It is an obligation for the government to engage in diplomacy in such a way that will contribute to the well-being of the people.”

Contrary to claims made that arbitration was the Philippines’ last resort after exhausting all bilateral means, China maintains that the Filipino government never had any discussions with Beijing on Manila’s claims in the South China Sea.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, the Philippine government, before unilaterally initiating the arbitration case against China in January, 2013, had no consultation or negotiation with the Chinese side on relevant items. It did not exhaust all the bilateral means for the settlement of disputes.

In a press briefing held this week in Beijing, a transcript of which was posted in the official website of the Chinese Embassy in Manila, Hua said the arbitration case lodged by the Philippines before the Permanent Court of Arbitration “won’t work and will lead nowhere.”

“It is the Chinese government’s long-standing commitment to peacefully resolve South China Sea disputes with the Philippines through negotiation and consultation,” he said. This track, she pointed out, has also been agreed and repeatedly reaffirmed by China and the Philippines, and clearly stated in the ASEAN-China Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea.

“All parties should encourage the Philippines to peacefully resolve disputes with China through negotiation based on consensus with China, the Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea, and international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas,” Hua said.