Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is due to arrive in China on Tuesday for a state visit. The visit could prove to be a crucial turning point for the two countries. For more on this, CCTV's Barnaby Lo joins us now from Manila.
Q1. Barnaby, China and the Philippines seem to be on good terms now. Can we expect this trip to completely restore normalcy in ties between both countries?
Q2. It definitely sounds like we can expect better ties between both countries from here on. Will this mean deteriorating ties between the Philippines and the U.S. though?
Among the first diplomats Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met after his election in May was China's Ambassador Zhao Jianhua. If there were questions then about what that could have meant, the answer has come. Just three months into his presidency, Duterte is visiting Beijing.
In those three months, Duterte has waged a deadly war on drugs that's been widely criticized by the West. In response, he's thrown some colorful words and declared an end to reliance on the United States while building new alliances, in particular with Russia and China.
"It's understandable that President Duterte wants to emphasize the relationship with China more because we're coming from practically six years, from the previous government, of not having much cooperation or dialogue with China," said Prof. Aileen Baviera, Asian Center, Univ. of the Philippines.
"Of course how we want to do it and why we want to do it also depends very much on the attitude that China itself demonstrates towards the Philippines. Is it willing to also meet the Philippines halfway? Is it interested in a cooperative relationship?"
China's ambassador to the Philippines says, it is.
Zhao Jianhua said, "We know that President Duterte is concerned about fishermen. We have the market. We have the capital. We have the interest."
"So that by further developing and engaging in fisheries cooperation, we can contribute in a variety or myriad of ways to the well-being of fishermen.
It wasn't clear whether Zhao was referring to access for Filipino fishermen to the disputed Huangyan area of the South China Sea. President Duterte did say he will negotiate fishing rights, but he isn't expected to make a big push for the Philippines' sovereign claims in the South China Sea. Both sides agree – there is a friendship that needs to be saved.
That Manila has reputedly the oldest Chinatown in the world is a testament to the centuries-old friendship between China and the Philippines, a friendship that had been severely strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, but which appears now to be on the mend.
For ordinary Chinese and Filipinos, the goodwill their governments are showing each other signals the beginning of a healing process.
