PHL-China ties: Ever stronger at 47 (Part 1)

President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Sr. (FEM) forty-seven years ago travelled to China to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong on June 8, 1975 and subsequently signed the joint communique with Premier Chou Enlai, the following day, June 9, on the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China (PROC).

This June 9, 2022 the formal diplomatic ties between the Philippines and the PRoC will be celebrating its 47the anniversary. The ties have only become stronger after President Rodrigo R. Duterte and President Xi Jinping agreed in November 2018 “to upgrade their ties to comprehensive strategic cooperation and jointly advance the Belt and Road construction.”

June 2022 is significant too as the 30th of the month will see the inauguration of the second Marcos to assume the Philippine presidency. At high noon on that day, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr. (FRM), the landslide winner of the 2022 presidential elections, will take his oath of office as the 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines.

Last May 12, 2022, just two days after the elections, in probably the earliest congratulatory message from a foreign leader, the president-elect (fondly called “BongBong” or BBM for short) received the personal letter of congratulations from President Xi Jinping of China, personally hand-carried by Ambassador Huang Xilian.

Subsequently, on May 18, 2022, President Xi Jinping personally called President-elect Bongbong Marcos, Jr. and according to BBM in the considerably lengthy conversation they had, Pres. Xi recalled the elder Marcos’ role in the development of China-Philippines relations and called him a “builder, supporter, and promoter of China-Philippines friendship.”

President-elect BBM was quoted saying the conversation lasted half-an-hour long, narrating what transpired:

“It wasn’t the usual congratulations. We really covered a lot of ground. We talked about the way forward for the China-Philippine relationship. So, it was very good, very substantial…” and “I told him that in my view, the way forward is to expand our relationship not only [in the] diplomatic [front], not only [in] trade, but also in culture, even in education, even in knowledge, even in health to address whatever minor disagreements that we have right now,”

That truly engaged discussion between the two national leaders, augurs well for the relationship of the two countries going forward to the next six-years. President-elect BBM has also stated before the public that, as widely reported, “relations with China will be expanded and shift to a higher gear under his administration” and Beijing responded with assurance of support for his “independent foreign policy” (end of first part).

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