THE GOVERNMENT’S momentous pivot to China has upended diplomatic arrangements in the region and raised alarms about Beijing’s possible stranglehold on the Philippine economy, but a little-examined aspect of the shift has been the desirability of the economically-vibrant Philippines as a market and an investment destination, giving Manila more leverage than many realize, analysts said.
CHINA has agreed to cooperate with the Philippines on three projects worth $3.44 billion and not the initially reported 30 projects worth $3.7 billions agreed on during the meeting between the two countries held in Beijing on Monday.
THE CABINET’S economic team, including the Transportation and Public Works Secretaries, is due in Beijing today to bring forward talks on the $15-billion investment deals signed in October during President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s visit to China.
THE PHILIPPINES could benefit from China’s ongoing shift to consumption from investment, even as local exports continue to hurt due to Beijing’s sluggish production, a United Nations (UN) report released yesterday said.
After a storm of criticism China upped its contribution to $1.8 million and dispatched its Peace Ark hospital ship (in photo), but the response paled in comparison to Japan’s $30 million, the United States’ $20 million—and even some private companies’. AP FILE PHOTO BEIJING—Mountains of Norwegian salmon left rotting at port. A beachfront resort in Palau abandoned before completion. A sluggish response to a devastating Philippine typhoon: crossing China’s “red lines” can have painful economic consequences. Beijing is looking to build up its political and diplomatic status as a “major responsible country” commensurate with its global economic position, and improve its cultural reach worldwide. As well as the world’s second-largest economy, China is its biggest trading nation in goods and Africa’s biggest trading partner, a fact highlighted last week by Japan’s attempt to present itself as a competitor on the continent. But experts say Beijing’s tactical moves toward smaller countries risk backfiring against its broader strategy. Beijing has sought to punish Norway since the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed dissident and prodemocracy activist Liu Xiaobo—despite Oslo having no control over the prize committee’s decisions. Strict new import controls left Norwegian salmon wasting away in Chinese warehouses, and its market share in the country, once 92 percent, plummeted to 29 percent last year. A musical starring Norwegian 2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak had its tour canceled, and Norwegians are excluded from China’s 72-hour transit visa schemes. Bully boy tactics “The ‘bully boy’ tactics that China has adopted, especially Read More …
Members of the medical crew stand at the inpatient room inside their Chinese Navy hospital ship Peace Ark before its departure from a navy base in Zhoushan, east of Shanghai, China, on a relief mission to the Philippines, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, which tore across several islands in the eastern Philippines on Nov. 8. AP ZHOUSHAN, China—A Chinese hospital ship set sail for the typhoon-ravaged Philippines Thursday, with foreign media given unprecedented access to a navy base as Beijing seeks to promote its aid effort nearly two weeks after the disaster. The Peace Ark, a 300-bed floating navy medical facility, sounded its horn as it set off from a People’s Liberation Army base on Zhoushan island, off the eastern province of Zhejiang. It is expected to take three or four days to reach the Philippines, which is embroiled in a territorial row with China. “With our efforts, we will make great contributions to the relationship between the Chinese people and the Philippine people,” Shen Hao, deputy chief of staff of the East China Sea Fleet and commander of the mission, told reporters allowed on board the vessel before it left. “We will do our utmost to make contributions to the Philippine side.” The deployment of the ship, which was featured on the front page of China’s state-run Global Times newspaper on Thursday, comes as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to counter international criticism of its relief effort. After an initial Read More …
Agence France-Presse 3:25 pm | Sunday, November 17th, 2013 Villagers, isolated by super typhoon Yolanda a week ago, scramble for relief goods being dropped by Philippine Air Force at La Paz, Leyte province in central Philippines, Friday Nov. 15, 2013. AP FILE PHOTO BEIJING, China – China says it is “ready” to send emergency medical personnel to the disaster-hit Philippines after its earlier pledges of financial and material aid were criticized as meager given its economic power. The Chinese government, which has a long-standing territorial dispute with the Philippines, initially offered just $100,000 to help in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda but raised its offer by a further $1.6 million on Thursday. “In light of the current actual needs of the typhoon-hit areas, the Chinese government is ready to dispatch the emergency medical assistance team on humanitarian grounds,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website Sunday. He added that private groups, including one under the Chinese Red Cross, have also expressed willingness to travel to the Philippines to assist in disaster relief. Hong said the rescue teams would depart “when conditions” allow but did not provide further details on the contingent. China was in close contact with the Philippine government on the provision of medical assistance, he said. Beijing’s offer of aid has been dwarfed by contributions from the US, which is leading the relief effort, Britain and Japan. Questions over the size of Chinese assistance come as Beijing and Manila are Read More …
Visitors look at the art work by American artist Tony Oursler entitled “100 Yuan (People’s Republic of China)” which features a projection of a Chinese renminbi note with a talking Mao Zedong at a gallery in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) HONG KONG — China’s yuan has joined the ranks of the most traded currencies for the first time, underlining the growing might of the country’s economy, the world’s second-largest. The yuan became one of the top 10 traded currencies in 2013, rising to No. 9 on the list due to a “significant expansion” in offshore trading, the Bank for International Settlements said in a report Thursday. It’s a sharp jump from the bank’s last survey in 2010, when the yuan, also known as the renminbi, was No. 17 on the list. Turnover in trades involving yuan surged to $120 billion a day on average in April 2013, three and half times more than the $34 billion in 2010. Still, that figure is dwarfed by the dollar, which accounted for about $4.7 trillion daily. The Bank for International Settlements, which is an international organization of central banks, said the yuan along with the Mexican peso, which rose to No. 8, “saw the most significant rise in market share among major emerging market currencies.” China’s leaders want the yuan to become an international currency and have been promoting its use as an alternative to the dollar. The yuan is not yet fully convertible but Beijing has been gradually loosening controls. Read More …
Associated Press 7:37 pm | Monday, September 2nd, 2013 DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — President Benigno Aquino III canceled a trip to a Chinese trade fair after Beijing demanded that he first withdraw a legal complaint over disputed territories in the South China Sea, Filipino officials said Monday. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and two other diplomats relayed conditions for Aquino to attend the annual China-Asean Expo, which opens Tuesday in the southern city of Nanning, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told a news conference. Hernandez declined to detail the conditions, but said these were “absolutely inimical to our national interest.” The Chinese side asked that the conditions not be publicly disclosed, he said. They were discussed by Wang and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario in Beijing on Wednesday. Because of the conditions, Aquino decided to call off his publicly announced trip to the trade fair, Hernandez said, adding the Philippines will instead send a delegation headed by its trade secretary. “The president stood firm in the defense of the country’s national interest,” Hernandez said. Two Philippine officials told The Associated Press that China wanted Manila to withdraw a U.N. arbitration case over disputed islands in the South China Sea. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. Chinese officials have also cited a new standoff between China and the Philippines over the Second Thomas Shoal, which is called Ayungin Shoal by Filipinos Read More …
The United States Senate may have done it, but at least two Philippine senators do not see the need to pass a resolution expressing concern about China’s actions in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who held backchannel talks with Chinese officials last year, said passing a resolution similar to the one approved by the US Senate’s foreign relations committee is “unnecessary” because the matter has already been brought to a United Nations (UN) arbitration tribunal. “It [A resolution] will be redundant since our President, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, have already articulated our foreign policy on the matter,” Trillanes, who chairs the Senate national defense committee, said in a text message. The US Senate passed on Monday a resolution listing several worrying Chinese behavior, including Beijing’s move to issue an official map defining the contested West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) as within its national border. On Friday, China opposed the passing of the US Senate resolution, and announced that it has filed a formal complaint against the US for the action of its legislature. ‘No difference’ Last January, the Philippines brought its territorial dispute with China before the UN tribunal, asking Beijing “to desist from unlawful activities that violate the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China is asserting its historial claim on the entire West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The Philippines, however, is claiming its ownership Read More …