Xinhua: Beijing says visit by Philippine president restores trust

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

This week’s visit to China by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte points toward a restoration of trust between the sides following recent tensions over their South China Sea territorial dispute, China’s official news agency said yesterday.
The visit by the recently elected Duterte, who was due to arrive in Beijing later in the day, will be a step toward ending years of estrangement between the countries, Xinhua News Agency said.
“Should he demonstrate his good faith, the trip will present a long overdue opportunity for the two nations, which enjoy longstanding friendship, to heal the wounds of the past few years and steer their relationship back to the right course,” Xinhua said in a commentary.
Duterte’s visit will help define how far he wants to shift allegiance from the United States to an Asian superpower locked in a territorial standoff with his small, impoverished country, and the Philippines’ 65-year alliance with the U.S. — a key pillar of President Barack Obama’s rebalance to Asia — could hang in the balance.
The Xinhua editorial signals how China hopes to use the visit to regain lost ground in a Southeast Asian nation that won a major arbitration lawsuit against Beijing’s massive territorial claims in the South China Sea just three months ago.
China refused to take part in the litigation or accept the ruling, which said China’s historical claim to virtually the entire strategic waterbody wasn’t supported by international law.
“The verdict issued by a law-abusing tribunal has no place in the negotiations at all,” Xinhua said.
Duterte is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials tomorrow. The Philippine draft of a proposed joint statement touches on the restoration of permits for Filipino agricultural exports, China’s support for Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, boosting tourism and enhancing Coast Guard cooperation to avoid misunderstandings at sea.
Details are still being worked out, officials say, and it remains unclear whether the thorny issue of the South China Sea territorial disputes will be reflected in the statement.
China was to offer “assistance in personnel training and donation of equipment to aid in the fight against illegal drugs,” according to the Philippine draft seen by The Associated Press.
Duterte’s deadly battle against drug dealers and abusers has been a defining issue of his political career, prompting him to lash out at Obama and other foreign critics and further propelling him toward rapprochement with an uncritical Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says no “foreign force” can stand in the way of progress in the long-neglected relationship between China and the Philippines.
Speaking in Beijing yesterday, Wang praised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for working to improve ties and for returning to “the track of dialogue and cooperation.”
Wang said: “This reflects the wish of the Philippine people, and is in line with the Philippines’ national interest. No foreign force can stand in the way of such process.”
While Wang gave no details, he was likely referencing the United States as a foreign force that could upset the rapprochement between Manila and Beijing, given the 65-year-old mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has told the official news agency that China is his country’s only hope for development.
Previously, Duterte said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that his visit to China points toward a restoration of trust between the sides following recent tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
He said China is a potent source of capital for much-needed infrastructure development and that the Philippines should leverage its 2 million-strong ethnic Chinese minority as a bridge to encourage Chinese investment.
Duterte said in the interview that his own grandfather was Chinese, and that “It’s only China (that) can help us.”
He said that unlike the U.S. and other Western nations, China has offered its support for his 3-month-old government without criticism.
A new poll shows that most Filipinos strongly trust the United States but have opposite feelings toward China.
The independent poll was released yesterday as Duterte starts a visit to Beijing to bolster ties.
The Social Weather Stations survey showed 76 percent of adult Filipinos have “much trust” in the U.S., while 13 percent are undecided. The rest have “little trust” for a “very good” net trust rating of plus 66.
China, on the other hand, is regarded with “little trust” by 55 percent of Filipinos, while 19 percent are undecided. Only 22 percent have “much trust” on the Asian economic powerhouse, the poll results showed.
The poll outcome came despite Duterte’s praises for China and his efforts to rebuild relations between Beijing and Manila that have been strained by long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea.
The SWS Sept. 24-27 survey polled 1,200 adult Filipinos and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. AP