Why Xi Jinping is a good opportunity for the Philippines

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. — Henri Bergson

There’s now a golden opportunity for the Philippines to renew our crucial bilateral relations with the world’s emerging economic superpower China under its new reformist leadership. On March 22, President Noynoy Aquino expressed confidence that ties between the Philippines and China, under the new leadership of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, will continue to be “largely positive.”

REFORMIST LEADERSHIP AUGURS WELL FOR MORE POSITIVE FOREIGN TIES?

Reform seems to be the global trend for new leaders, from Pope Francis, who eschews luxuries and is expected to clean up the Vatican, to China’s new government, which is seemingly intent on a decisive anti-corruption campaign and no longer just focused on the previous era’s fast-paced economic growth at almost any cost.  Even Xi’s wife, China’s First Lady Peng LiYuan, is admired for her unique humility and glamour.

New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs recently wrote that President Xi has cracked down on the free-spending habits of China’s politicians and military officers with a draconian austerity and anti-corruption campaign, warning that his administration would swat both “tigers and flies.”

President Aquino expressed high hopes for the continued development of bilateral ties between the two Asian neighbors under China’s new political leadership, at the start of his speech at the opening ceremony of the 29th biennial convention of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) at SMX. President Aquino made these remarks after acknowledging the presence of Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing among the foreign dignitaries and local guests.

President Aquino said: “I would like to again express my sincerest congratulations on the election of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang … I have every confidence that, under President Xi’s leadership, the Chinese people will continue to realize their goals of peace, prosperity, and happiness for all, and that the relations between our two countries will remain largely positive, as they have been in the past.”

Xi Jinping and his team of new leaders were formally elected on March 14. Xi was elected state president and chairman of China’s Central Military Commission at the plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People’s Congress. Xi is seen as a reformist and pragmatic leader, his late father Xi Zhongxun was known to be relatively liberal and was a respected revolutionary leader.

Immediately after Xi’s rise, US President Barack Obama called President Xi and, in a telephone conversation, expressed high hopes for expanding cooperation and mutual respect between their two nations. Obama said the US and China have conducted broad and in-depth cooperation over the past four years, saying US-China relations face a historic opportunity to chart a course for future development.

MAR ROXAS, LACIERDA & TITO PANLILIO MEET XI: $60B trade by 2016?

In October of last year, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas was P-Noy’s special envoy to meet Xi at the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning City, along with Mandarin-speaking presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and hardworking Trade Undersecretary Cristino “Tito” Panlilio, who passionately championed strong bilateral economic ties.

Xi reportedly told Roxas, “I hope this [territorial disagreements situation] will not appear again and again, allowing bilateral relations to return to the track of normal development … China-Philippine relations have encountered some difficulties. However, through effective communication between the two sides, the situation has already eased.”

Despite recent territorial disagreements, Philippine-China bilateral trade has grown dramatically to US$30 billion last year. Under the Philippine-China Five Year Development Program for Trade and Economic Cooperation, the two countries target reaching an annual amount of $60 billion in bilateral trade and at least $1.5 billion in total two-way direct investments by 2016.

Tourist arrivals from China have been affected by territorial disputes, such as the Philippine government’s refusal to stamp visas on Chinese passports bearing their map of the South China Sea on it.  Despite China becoming the top tourists in many Asian countries, Chinese tourists still rank fourth in the Philippines.

BETTER PHILIPPINE-CHINA TIES TO LEAD TO TOURISM BOOM?

Tourism industry businessmen told me that they hope pragmatism and mutually beneficial win-win economics will help overcome any political disagreements. They pointed out the expected $15 billion investments of “Ports King” boss Ricky Razon in his Solaire casino complex, the Belle Grande Manila Bay of SM Group with Macau and Australian investors, Resorts World Bayshore of Malaysia’s Genting Group and Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global, and Manila Bay Resorts by a Japanese pachinko tycoon in the Entertainment City in the Manila Bay area will rely largely on the influx of Chinese tourists and high-rollers.

Macau and Singapore mega-casinos now far outstrip Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Monte Carlo combined in record-breaking revenues, due to affluent Chinese tourists who love to shop, dine and gamble. Since 2006, Macau has surpassed Las Vegas as the world’s No. 1 gambling center. Journalist Jim Edwards of Business Insider last year wrote an article entitled “These Casinos in Macau make Las Vegas look like a Dump.”

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said the government wasn’t able to attain its target of wooing 450,000 Chinese tourists in 2012, attracting less than 200,000. In comparison, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Governor Surapon Svetasreni, said his country welcomed a record 270,000 tourists from China during the week of Chinese New Year alone!

No less than 10 billion baht (US$333 million) were circulated by tourists during the weeklong Chinese New Year season. Thailand’s No. 1 source of tourists now is China, with arrivals of 2.7 million mostly affluent travelers per year.  Even former ideological foe Taiwan is having a realty and economic boom due to so many Chinese tourists.

Our neighbor Malaysia is targeting two million Chinese tourists a year for the upcoming Visit Malaysia Year 2013/2014, according to its Mandarin-speaking Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ng Yen Yen. She said, “By 2014, we hope we will receive up to two million Chinese tourists annually.” Minister Ng also told me in Singapore: “What happened to you in the Philippines, you were once ahead of us even in tourism?”

In South Korea, the trend is the same. South Korean retail and casino businesses are expected to thrive this year due to a record rise in the number of Chinese tourists who are big shoppers. The state-run Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) said that in the month of February alone, a record 219,400 Chinese tourists visited South Korea, a whopping increase of 65 percent from the same month in 2012.

To compete with other Asian countries and in order to attract more Chinese tourists, South Korea streamlined tourist visa procedures for the Chinese starting Aug. 1, 2010. Chinese travelers can also go to the country’s southernmost resort of Jeju for 30 days without a visa. Thailand has also waived visa fees for Chinese tourists.

The business-savvy and strategic-minded Tourism Secretary Jimenez said the Department of Tourism is closely coordinating with the Department of Foreign Affairs on how to settle the tourist visa problem in order to boost tourist arrivals from China. Jimenez added, “The thing is we don’t want our total connection with China to deteriorate. We have very major differences but are we enemies? No. And that’s the proper perspective the Department of Tourism is (supporting).”

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