$13.5-billion deals highlight Duterte's landmark China visit

BEIJING -- President Rodrigo R. Duterte's landmark visit to China, which Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said could help “fully improve” ties that has been tested by a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, will see $13.5 billion worth of deals inked between the two Asian neighbors, the Philippines' Trade chief said in a business forum here.

Mr. Duterte’s state visit to China -- following a working visit to Indonesia, an official visit to Vietnam and this week’s state visit to Brunei -- marks a departure from the tradition observed by his predecessors to visit the US.

The China trip has been marked by the host country’s reception to Mr. Duterte, alongside a mutual affirmation of trade and investment ties ahead.

China and the Philippines will sign $13.5 billion in deals this week, Mr. Duterte’s trade secretary, Ramon M. Lopez, disclosed at a business forum in Beijing on Thursday.

Mr. Duterte in Beijing was joined by at least 200 top business people to pave the way for what he calls a new commercial alliance, as relations with Washington are increasingly being complicated by his anti-US stance.

On Wednesday, to the cheers of hundreds of Filipinos in Beijing, Mr. Duterte said Philippine foreign policy was veering towards China.

“I will not go to America anymore. We will just be insulted there,” he said. “So time to say good-bye, my friend.”

He also declared there will be “no more American interference” in the Philippines and belittled too the country’s gains in its decades-long alliance with the US following the latter’s colonial rule of almost half the 20th century.

“Do not tell us that you have provided us with education. We would have survived if there was no education in my country at that time, we would have invited one [country] better than what they have given us,” Mr. Duterte said.

Nationalist-oriented educators have long emphasized the Philippines’ having its own constitution and structure of government and public service, along with a highly articulate and expressive cultural elite in the ilustrado movement, before US colonial rule which began with a bloody pacification campaign at the turn of the 20th century.

But in the postwar era and thereafter, Filipinos are understood to have a favorable view of the US, despite occasional nationalist episodes such as the Philippine Senate’s 1991 vote rejecting the continued stay of US bases in Central Luzon.

A poll conducted late September by the Social Weather Stations found China having a “bad” -33 net trust rating among Filipinos, compared with a “very good” +66 for the US.

Mr. Duterte has been attacking the Western superpower in his profanity-laced speeches for its criticism of his war against illegal drugs and its spiraling death tally.

Beijing, meanwhile, has enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, which has seen more than 3,700 people killed and led the International Criminal Court to warn that those responsible could face charges

China has, moreover, offered to train some Filipino cadets in “anti-illegal drug and VIP security protection,” according to Ramon Purugganan, deputy director of intelligence with the Philippine National Police.

Mr. Duterte has also been calling for his country’s pivot to Beijing and Moscow, In contrast to Washington’s Asia pivot -- although he has thus far shied away from his option to terminate the Philippines’ military arrangements with the US.

In his Wednesday speech, he said he will welcome any aid from China because “we are very poor.”

“The foreign policy gears now towards dito (here). I will not ask but if they offer and they would ask me, ‘You need this aid?’ Of course, we are, we are very poor. ‘You need this railway?’ Yes, sir. And if you can give us a soft loan, give us something like 20 years to pay, 15 years to pay. Even with the price, just give us a little bit of an elbow room,” he added.

“When was the last time, we have been with America? We’ve never had any railroad,” he also said, thus contradicting US legacy in its colonial rule. He added: “In Russia, it’s now crisscrossing African continent. It’s almost crisscrossing now the African -- the railway.”

SEA ROW TAKES BACK SEAT
For his part, Mr. Xi on Thursday told Mr. Duterte at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People that China and the Philippines were brothers and that the two sides could “appropriately handle disputes,” although the Chinese leader did not specifically mention the South China Sea row in comments in front of reporters.

“I hope we can follow the wishes of the people and use this visit as an opportunity to push China-Philippines relations back on a friendly footing and fully improve things,” Mr. Xi said.

Mr. Duterte on Wednesday reversed an earlier statement that he would take up the South China Sea arbitration case -- this time saying the dispute would “take the back seat” during talks, and that he would wait for the Chinese to bring up the matter rather than doing so himself.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said for his part the two countries would return to the track of dialogue and consultation in seeking a proper settlement of the South China Sea issue. “The two sides briefly mentioned the South China Sea. Both sides agreed that this issue is not the sum total of bilateral relations,” he told reporters after the Xi-Duterte meeting.

But Mr. Liu said the issue of Scarborough Shoal, which China seized in 2012, was not mentioned and did not answer a question about whether Philippine fishermen would be allowed to fish in what had been their traditional fishing waters.

He did say both countries agreed on coast guard and fisheries cooperation.

For her part, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that Beijing was pleased to move towards resolving the territorial dispute “through consultation and dialogue”.

“Anyone who truly wishes for peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia Pacific should welcome Duterte’s visit,” she said.

In an editorial Wednesday, China’s nationalist Global Times newspaper said Washington had treated Manila “as a pawn,” adding Mr. Duterte was now “redesigning Philippine foreign policy based on Philippine interests.” -- reports by Reuters, AFP, Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral

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List of agreements between PHL and China

• MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation and the Agreement on Economic and Technological Cooperation between the Government of China and the Philippines

• MoU on Strengthening Trade, Investment and Economic Cooperation, the MoU on Drafting China-Philippines Economic Cooperation Development Plans and the Tourism MoU Implementation Plan 2017-2022

• MoU on the Lists of Transportation and Infrastructure Cooperation Projects and the MoU on Financing Cooperation between the China’s EXIMBANK (Export-Import Bank of China) and the Department of the Treasury of the Philippines

• Agricultural Cooperation Action Plan 2017-2019 and the Protocol on Cooperation between PDEA of the Philippines and the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China

• MoU on the Establishment of a Joint Coastal Guard Committee on Maritime Cooperation and the MoU on Supporting Conduct of Feasibility Studies for Major Projects

• MoU on News Information Exchange Training and for Other Purposes

• MoU on Cooperation on Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine

Source: Presidential Communications Office