"The outgoing ambassador has our deep gratitude."
Outgoing ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, Zhao Jianhua, made a farewell courtesy call to President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang last Oct. 30. Zhao had served as China’s ambassador to the Philippines since 2014. His tour of assignment saw the accelerated firming up of Philippine-China relations. It was during his stint that saw the lowest ebb in the relations between the two and the phenomenal trust in recognizing that both have a community of shared future in promoting development, trade and progress among nations.
Since the opening of diplomatic ties in 1975, Philippine-Chinese relations have gone through a period of suspicion and distrust probably because of the hangover of the Cold War framed in our sentimentalist attitude towards our former colonizer. Ambassador Zhao was aware of this misguided Filipino attitude that he had to hurdle a Herculean task—which is to overcome this psychological barrier that runs deep. By coincidence, his designation as Chinese ambassador came when the Philippines filed a case for arbitration in our claim in the South China Sea. Relations deteriorated after the arrest of Chinese fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal and culminated in a stand-off between our Philippine navy boats and China’s coast cutters.
Despite the heated rhetoric and verbal barbs, Zhao remained open and conciliatory with the end goal of reaching an agreement without resorting to shooting war to which nobody could win. Through dialogue and peaceful negotiations, China has now allowed our fisherman to enter the shoal to catch in the rich fishing basin. The good thing about this approach, in which ambassador Zhao played an important role, is that it allowed Philippine-Chinese relations to enter a second phase. That happened with the election of President Duterte in 2016. Nobody knew ambassador Zhao would be able to reach some kind of political and personal chemistry with the President to somewhat magically bring renaissance to Philippine-China relations.
Frankly, how President Duterte and Ambassador managed to close the gap of distrust and suspicion in China’s offer of friendship came as a surprise. Many thought that the Duterte administration would be mainly confined to domestic policy, and has no interest in reviving with greater vigor an independent policy. Maybe we can attribute it to ambassador Zhao that it is to the best interest of the two countries in understanding they have a community of shared future than in building a wedge that would only isolate the country back to the Cold War era. Ambassador Zhao was able to integrate President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” a gargantuan project to connect China, Trans-Asia and the Pacific to hasten progress and trade with that of President Duterte’s program of “Build, Build, Build.” The immediate impact is that it instantly convinced many stereotype Filipinos to rethink of China as shrewd and cannot be trusted.
There are five areas today where China and the Philippines intend to intensify their cooperation. These are: One, building a bilateral financial cooperation in which both sides agreed to revisit current currency swap arrangement to manage foreign exchange risk.
Two, exploring areas of cooperation in infrastructure, education, tourism, technology, power, ports and information technology.
Three, enhancing agricultural and trade cooperation and assessing the growth potential in agricultural sector and shared opportunities where the countries can mutually gain benefit such as the export of Chinese-made agricultural equipment, expansion of Philippine export to China such as tropical fruits as banana, coconut and pineapple; and “high-end” marine and fishery products like lapu-lapu, bangus, tuna, crab and shrimps.
Four, addressing reported trade gaps, improving exchange information on export/import data and curbing the entry of illegal drugs from China to the Philippines.
And five, assisting in the joint development of tourist areas in the country which China expressed interest in establishing hotels to cater to the increasing number of Chinese tourist arriving in the country.
China has purposely chosen to undertake projects that will help ease our road arteries in Metro Manila. The China-funded bridges will greatly ease traffic capacity and efficiency by providing additional fix links and additional routes crossing Pasig River. The P4.243-billion Binondo-Intramuros Bridge project has two-way four lanes with a total length of 734 meters upon completion within 30 months. Another is the P1.229-billion Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge which is a 506.46 meter-reconstructed bridge traversing the cities of Makati and Mandaluyong upon completion in 23 months.
There are currently 18 projects totalling P731.7 billion that have been rolled out by China during the President’s visit. Two projects costing at least P500 million each are slated—the Department of Agriculture’s P500-million Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology Cooperation Program Phase 3, and the Seawater Desalination Complete Equipment Project in Dauis, Bohol to be financed through Chinese grants. Another is the loan extended to National Irrigation Authority of P4.4 billion to finance the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project. Under negotiations are loans to secure the P12.2 billion to finance the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project for MWSS; the Department of Transportation’s project of P175.3-billion North-South Railway Line (Long Haul); the Bases Conversion and Development Authority of P57.2-billion Subic-Clark Railway Project; the P39.2-billion Ambal-Simuay River and Rio Grande de Mindanao River Control Project; the P25.6-billion Davao Expressway Project; the P97.3-billion Panay-Guimaras-Negros island bridges; the P56.6 billion Cebu-Bohol link bridge; the P44.6-billion North Luzon Expressway East Project; the P47.4-billion Dinagat (Leyte)-Sugrigao link bridge; the P57.6-billion Luzon-Samar link bridge; that P72.1-billion Bohol-Leyte link bridge; the P14.4-billion Negro-Cebu link bridge; and the P2.3-billion Camarines Sur Expressway Project.
All the laudable and specific projects to be financed and undertaken by China are geared towards the promotion of trade and connectivity. Most of the countries that styled themselves as traditional donors continue to downplay China’s contributions. They merely cite statistical comparison to the amount contributed by China, often forewarning countries that in securing loans they might end up in a debt trap. But have they asked themselves the basic question why countries supposedly awash with “surplus capital” allow much of their capital providing to loans through institutional banks with soaring interest rates and impose conditionalities therein. For instance, it cited Japan as the country’s leading creditor/donor. It has currently financed 10 grant-funded projects worth $141.33 million and 22 ODA loan-funded projects amounting to over $6 billion. The US and Australia have active grants to the Philippine worth $553.58 and $444.1 million, respectively. Yet, they never bothered to identify any of their funded projects, least to show to our people where their money went in helping the Philippines.
What is observed is that the US is more preoccupied in providing weapons to countries because they serve a dual purpose of letting countries fight to defend their interest while providing much profit to its military industrial complex, which, in truth, is the one fuelling all wars. This is the paradox because destruction completes the cycle to rebuild in the aftermath of war.
In light of what Ambassador Zhao has done to help this country, he was given the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Datu by the President for his invaluable contribution to peace and progress. Ambassador Zhao has the deep gratitude of the Filipino people for the friendship he forged while serving as China’s ambassador.