Philippines in a Happy and Healthy Relationship with China?
Philippines in a Happy and Healthy Relationship with China?
By Sonny Africa
IBON.org
IBON Features – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recently concluded state visit was hyped as historic and relationship-altering in a good way towards “comprehensive, strategic cooperation”. The joint statement released at the end spoke of a couple with a healthy relationship: reminiscing the past, establishing trust, open communication, arguing in a healthy way and reaching compromises, supporting one another, appreciating each other’s interests, and sharing things in common. Of course something could have been said about establishing boundaries but maybe later.
The costs of state visits are usually shouldered by the host country so maybe China was just being polite because its date was picking up the tab. In any case, the aftermath of the visit is a chance to put the Philippines’ debt and other ties to China in perspective.
Comments (0)