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By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in
Chief
NO bribery scandal, like the one
about the ZTE NBN deal, no geopolitical issues, can break the
resolve of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and apparently
China’s President Hu Jintao to make the “Golden Age of
Philippines-China relationship” go on forever (Chinese Ambassador
Song Tao’s words).
On June 8, 2005, the 30th
anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations
between the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines,
Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo correctly declared that
Philippines-China relations had entered “the Golden Age.”
Diplomatic relations cemented
what was already a people-to-people reality. Filipinos, even during
the Cultural Revolution, have always been close to their Chinese
cousins.
Our Chinese cousins
Isn’t it one of the credible
theories on the peopling of Asia that the Southeast Asians
originally came from Hunan? And in the past five hundred years, have
there been no unceasing procession of marriages between Chinese and
Filipinos that, beyond the six-degrees of separation theory, by this
time fully, at least 90 percent of the Filipinos have Chinese blood
in them—like Jose Rizal? In short, that most Filipinos including
the swarthiest among us are Tsinoys?
Philippines-China relations,
Filipino-Chinese relations, have developed amazingly close these
past 33 years that China is now the third biggest export market of
the Philippines—after the United States and Japan. If Hong Kong
figures are counted, China would be the No. 1 buyer of our products.
(See “2007 trade surge being repeated in 2008 despite global
slowdown.”)
Trade surge
Our exports to China in March
2008 amounted to $549.15 million or 13.1 percent of total
(Philippine) exports, an increase of 13.2 percent from a year ago
amounting to only $485.02 million.
Funnily, China’s statistics –
based on its Customs reports – show that we are in fact selling
much more to our Chinese cousins. And they are complaining.
Trade imbalance
The Economic and Commercial
Counselor of the Chinese Embassy speaks of a “severe trade
imbalance.”
His report says:
“With the rapid growth of
bilateral trade, the problem of trade imbalance has become more and
more prominent. The Chinese Customs data show that the export volume
to Philippine is $7.5 billion, while the import volume from
Philippine is $23.12 billion in the year 2007 leading to a huge
trade deficit of $15.62 billion by the Chinese side.
“On the one hand, the
commodities exported to Philippine are diversified, including
electronic products, textiles and clothing, steel, light industrial
utensil ext. On the other hand, the imports categories from
Philippine by the Chinese side are relatively concentrated, with
electronic products accounting for more than 80 percent of the total
imports volume.”
Very politely, the Counselor
observes, instead of demanding, that “The trade complement between
two sides needs to be enhanced.”
Economists in the Philippines are
wondering why? And the quick answer is: Smuggling!
We have many clever Filipino
importers who can manage to do magic with their documents at the
Bureau of Customs.
Investments and loans
Who would have, among the
anti-communist Filipinos of the Cold War years, imagined that
Communist China – which was what they called “the Mainland”
then – would become one of this country’s biggest investors and
loan givers?
But this, China as great
investors and give of loans to the Philippines, has become such a
established fact that one of China’s biggest state corporations,
ZTE—a giant in high technology communications whose shares are
sold in the global stock exchanges and which has trillion-dollar
projects in China and all over the world—got embroiled in an
embarrassing bribery scandal.
The scandal made Liu Hongcai (the
“cai” is pronounced “tsai”), the vice minister of the
international department of the Chinese Communist Party’s central
committee, assure reporters – after he had a talk with DILG
Secretary Ronaldo Puno—that the he hoped the ZTE probes “would
not affect our bilateral ties.” But he did express worries that
the Senate investigations into the ZTE NBN deal, which President
Arroyo aborted because of the scandal, could wreck RP-PRC ties.
China as an investor – and a
friend – also made the government enter into an agreement, first
with China alone and then with Vietnam, when Vietnam complained to
both China and the Philippines about being shut out of their deal,
to do seismic marine studies in the seas around or in the Spratlys
which we own.
There was again a big stink about
the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking, which could result in a
profitable partnership. China’s state news agency, Xinhua,
reported last March 12: “China worried about tendencies in
Philippines about JSMU.” It said “The Chinese Embassy in Manila
Wednesday said China is worried about some recently emerged
tendencies in the Philippines which may impose negative influence on
China-Philippines friendly relations and mutually beneficial
cooperation.
“The Chinese Embassy said in a
statement that with the common efforts of China and the Philippines,
China-Philippines relations have been developing smoothly in recent
years and increasingly expanded mutually beneficial cooperation in
various fields has brought about tangible benefits to the peoples of
the two countries.”
But Philippine politicians and
media people were questioning the deal despite the fact, said the
Embassy, that “The China-Philippines-Vietnam tripartite
cooperation in the South China Sea complies with the principles of
the ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South
China Sea (DOC)and is conducive to maintenance of peace and
stability in the South China Sea and the region at large.”
Because of this some
serious scholars came to write that “a March 12 Xinhua dispatch
offering a rare assessment of Chinese concerns regarding relations
with the Philippines suggested that all was not well in
China-Philippine relations.”
Defense and security
China-Philippines relations are
now so warm that the two countries are cooperating even in defense
and security matters.
The Armed Forces of the
Philippines has sent officers to train with China’s People’s
Liberation Army on various military skills.
Observers say, however, that the
closer military-to-military exchanges and dialogue between China and
the Philippines, Indonesia and other Asean countries should not be
seen as something to endanger the peaceful arrangements now more or
less under the American security umbrella.
As Secretary Romulo says,
“Today the Philippines and China are closer than ever, enjoying a
dynamic bilateral relations and partners in regional and global
concerns that affect both countries, their region and, in many ways,
the rest of the world. In the past three decades, the bond between
the Philippines and China has evolved from one of cordial exchanges
to the vibrant political and economic partnership we have today.
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