THE United States’s and China’s top envoys exchange testy words before a television camera but remained civil throughout the three-hourlong celebration of the Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year at a hotel in Manila on Tuesday night.
Diplomatic reporters, who had attended the same event for the last three years, found it a typical New Year celebration of the Chinese Embassy. It was also attended by some members of the diplomatic community other friends of the embassy.
However, the media and Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua were surprised when the US and Philippine ambassadors showed up at the event to congratulate him, coming just days after a heated exchange between Washington and Beijing over an American warhip’s sail-by in disputed waters in the West Philippine Sea (WPS, South China Sea).
In an ambush interview, US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, defending the latest foray of a US destroyer in the WPS, said: “We continue freedom of navigation [patrol’s] in the South China Sea, something that’s not new, we’ve done freedom of navigation operations for decades.”
He said his presence at the Shangri-La event “signals the US desire to show respect to the diplomatic friends of America.”
When it was Zhao’s turn to be interviewed, he said: “What we cannot accept is that some countries are using freedom of navigation as an excuse to intrude upon the sovereignty and interest of our country. I think there has never been a problem in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and everybody can see that.”
China maintains that it has indisputable sovereignty over the contested reefs, shoals and rocks in the WPS, whether the Philippines win the arbitration case against China.
The US destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands on the WPS, on January 2.
The sail-by, the second the US had made within the last four months in the disputed WPS, has triggered calls among China’s military for tougher action against the US.
Beijing has condemned the Saturday incident, saying, that it strongly opposed Washington’s “provocative move.”
Earlier, Zhao warmly acknowledged his US counterpart, saying, “Thank you ambassador for coming tonight.”
Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario came later with his wife, Gretchen.
Zhao said he was pleasantly surprised to see the Philippines’s top diplomat.
Del Rosario had not attended any Chinese Embassy event since Manila filed a case against Beijing before the UN Arbitral Tribunal, seeking clear delineations of maritime entitlements as China stepped up its expansion and reclamation activities in waters claimed by the Philippines.
Del Rosario declined to be interviewed. When asked what made him decide to show up at the embassy reception, he replied, “Our friend is celebrating their New Year.”
The Philippines is awaiting the outcome of the three-year case, which the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, that it hopes will be released sometime this year.
Oddly, del Rosario did not acknowledge Zhao’s speech as a form of diplomatic courtesy.
Asked why in a test message, Department of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose said: “The secretary of Foreign Affairs just being there already says a lot.”
In his speech, Zhao praised the Philippines having joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). “The [AIIB] offers great opportunities for cooperation in the sector of infrastructure, but will, in fact, become a greater neutrality of current and future bilateral relations,” Zhao said.
“I sincerely hope and believe that through our joint efforts, we will continue to make new progress and open a new chapter of cooperation in this Chinese New Year, the Year of the Monkey.”
Although the two countries are embroiled in a territorial dispute, Zhao said the two countries have one thing in common, which is to peacefully settle the dispute in the WPS.
“China is committed to peaceful settlement through dialogue and negotiation with the Philippines,” Zhao said. He said China remains as one of the top trading partners of the Philippines, and that for the first 11 months of 2015, trade had reached $45.46 billion, an increase by 2.3 percent.
“More than 400 thousand Chinese travels to the Philippines last year,” Zhao said.
“As Confucius said, at the age of 40, one should no longer be confused. The relationship between China and the Philipines have reached 41. China and the Philippines should not be confused in the current difficulties,” Zhao added, saying we are close neighbors, we cannot move away from each other.
“We are partners, we can benefit more if we can use the great potentials of Philippine cooperation. We’re friends, sharing over 1,000 years of friendship and amicable exchanges.”
Image credits: AP
2 comments
Little Philippines must accept the fact that China is the Big Boss in Asia since ancient times and must kowtow to China.
i don’t believe the phils need to”kowtow” to china or to anyone else. china is big,yes in land area and population, that’s all. being big in those terms does not make any one ”boss” at all. you need to be big on virtues, not physical size. as a matter of fact, there is none in ancient history that i am aware of that makes china an international leader. pls enlightened me and the other netizens.