Phl looks forward to warm relations with China

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is looking forward to a warming of relations with China, which officially begins the process of selecting its new leadership today.

China today opens its 18th Party Congress, which will select a new generation of Communist Party officials who will take the reins of the world’s most populous country into the 2020s.

The outcomes are not expected to be officially known until the middle of November, but the long-term effects will be profound.

All but two of the Politburo standing committee, China’s top political body, will step down and other powerful posts will change hands.

The Philippines is hopeful its relations with China will improve after domestic political pressures in Beijing associated with the changeover ease.

When asked if better relations were anticipated, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said: “Certainly, we look forward to a warming of relations.”

Lacierda said recent meetings with Chinese officials, including Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying and Vice President Xi Jinping, had eased tensions over territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.

Xi is expected to become China’s new leader, taking over from President Hu Jintao.

“We were able to convey the President’s message to the leadership of the Chinese Politburo, and Mr. Xi Jinping was able to convey their message to us,” Lacierda said.

“We hope that our relations with China would be better and, again, we have several levels of exchanges with China,” he said.

The government wishes to improve on all aspects of those exchanges, including trade, tourism and cultural exchange with China, Lacierda said.

“The issue on the West Philippine Sea is not the end-all and be-all of our relations with China.”

President Aquino this week pushed for an international solution to overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Laos.

Aquino raised the issue in bilateral meetings with European leaders, saying vital global shipping lanes were at stake.

Last month, Aquino told a Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) press conference the political developments in China would lessen “nationalistic pressures” on the leadership.

“We recognize the fact that they (China) are undergoing a transition which hopefully will happen by the end of November when there, hopefully, will be less nationalistic pressures on whoever the leadership will be,” Aquino said.

“There seems to be a very gradual warming up... We are hopeful that this gradual warming up will be really warmed up by the time of the transition. So we’re taking a wait-and-see attitude.”

China claims nearly all of the West Philippine Sea, even waters near the coasts of neighboring countries.

The Philippines and Vietnam have accused Beijing of becoming increasingly aggressive in staking out its claims.

Since April, the Philippines has been engaged in a standoff with China over a disputed shoal. Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims to parts of the sea.

Aquino insisted resolution of the dispute needs a multilateral approach, but China has pushed for solving the dispute bilaterally with individual countries involved.                                        – Nicholas Jones