Today, unmistakable signals of the new role of resurgent China as a new global superpower and catalyst of Asia Pacific economic prosperity are the recent two welcome receptions for new Ambassador Li Jinjun. On December 7, an elegant luncheon was hosted by Philippine STAR publisher Max Soliven with STAR president and CEO Miguel Go Belmonte and Stargate Media Corp. president Jose Manuel "Babes" Romualdez as co-hosts at the Tower Club in Makati City. On the same day, a grand dinner reception was hosted by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) led by president Francis Chua along with 300 other Filipino-Chinese business, civic and cultural organizations at the Manila Hotel ballroom.
In his speech, Max Soliven recalled that his initial impressions of the 49-year-old Ambassador Li were "he was too young to be an ambassador and too smiley to be a diplomat." However, he later realized that Li "has strong party connections, more influential than he looks, and has strong character." Soliven welcomed Li’s arrival as good news for the country in light of China’s economic miracle "because he’d be a strong advocate for the Philippines in Beijing instead of the other way around."
Educated in Shanghai and Germany, Ambassador Li Jinjun is the youngest of the 11 envoys of China to the Philippines ever since official diplomatic relations were established 30 years ago. He said that he was fortunate to have met Soliven last month at the Beijing Hotel when the latter joined the inaugural flight celebrations of Philippine Airlines’ nonstop flight from Manila to Beijing. He said, "I am very pleased and proud to have made his acquaintance and to be his friend."
Li added, "I thank my friend Max Soliven for being the first Filipino to host a welcome reception for me and I represent the government of China in thanking the Philippine STAR for your support in promoting our bilateral relations. It’s an honor for me to meet Max Soliven in Beijing and now here. He has interviewed many of our top national leaders whom most of us had only read about in history books. He interviewed the late Premier Zhou Enlai, the Ching Dynasty’s last Emperor Pu Yi and others. He is also one of the earliest Filipino journalists to have visited and written about the new China. Max Soliven is respected by us and is a good old friend of China, and the Philippine STAR is influential and we are grateful for your support."
Among the VIP guests who graced the luncheon were British Ambassador Peter Beckingham, Singaporean Ambassador Lim Kheng Hua, Thai Ambassador Asha Dvitiyananda, Japanese Ambassador Ruichiro Yamazaki, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Nebogatov, Vietnamese Ambassador Dinh Tich, Australian Ambassador Anthony Hely, Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland, Italian Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Mario Alberto Bartolli, Korean Ambassador Hong Jong-Ki, former Philippine Ambassador to Moscow Jaime Bautista, US Consul Richard Dale Haynes, Chinese Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Xiao Qian, Political Section chief Lin Tao, spokesman Niu Jitao, interpreter Peng Xiubing, Shanghai Wen Hui Daily Manila bureau chief Xia Xiaoyang, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Inc. honorary president Robin Sy, Oishi/Liwayway taipan Carlos Chan and his son, CEO of their Shanghai operations Larry Chan, columnist Valeriano "Bobit" Avila of STAR’s Cebu affiliate Freeman and Tourism Department senior adviser Arthur Lopez.
Industrialist Carlos Chan is a low-key taipan who has invested in 15 Oishi snack food factories all over China, competing directly with Western multinational giants, Taiwanese billionaires and other foreign investors in booming China. He is also a top official of the Soong Ching-Ling Foundation, named in honor of the revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s wife and he financially supported the establishment of the Philippine Consulate in Shanghai City, where his vast China enterprises have their corporate headquarters run by his sons. His younger brother Ben Chan also has Bench stores in China.
It was a luncheon marked by warm camaraderie, banter and good humor, with the Japanese Ambassador seated beside the Chinese Ambassador and joking that the latter’s Chinese name literally means "advancing militarism." Ambassador Yamazaki expressed hopes that tensions between his nation and China over unresolved historical issues will eventually be settled amicably. Soliven mentioned that his late father was a guerrilla war hero who died fighting the Japanese invaders, but the Philippines is today a friend of Japan.
Newly arrived Korean Ambassador Hong Jong-Ki said the South Korean President is arriving on a state visit this Thursday and that there are now an estimated 100,000 Koreans living as migrants in the Philippines. Ambassador Hong told Philippine STAR that there are now almost 60 airline flights between the Philippines and South Korea every week bringing in 10,000 Korean tourists here each week. British Ambassador Peter Beckingham expressed appreciation to the STAR for a recent article on the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, which mentioned his father and his wife’s father as veterans who valiantly fought for democracy in Europe.
One fascinating error in the epic film Jose Rizal by GMA Films was the Christmas dinner party scene set at Malacañang Palace in 1896 with director Chito Rono playing the role of the Chinese Ambassador. This was a mistake, for the Spanish colony of the Philippine Islands then could only have consuls, not ambassadors. Local Chinese merchant leaders were then still pressing their influence with the Ching Dynasty to be appointed the first Chinese consul general to Manila. This enthusiastic lobbying by top Chinese merchants was accurately depicted in Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo through the persona of the fictional Quiroga.
In Chapter 16 of El Filibusterismo, on "The Tribulations of a Chinese," Rizal wrote: "In the evening of that same Saturday, Quiroga, the Chinese, who aspired to the creation of a consulate for his nation, gave a dinner in the rooms over his bazaar, located in the Escolta. His feast was well attended: friars, government employees, soldiers, merchants, all of them his customers, partners or patrons, were to be seen there, for his store supplied the curates and the conventos with all their necessities, he accepted the chits of all the employees, and he had servants who were discreet, prompt, and complaisant. The friars themselves did not disdain to pass whole hours in his store, sometimes in view of the public, sometimes in the chambers with agreeable company…."
In real life, three years after the Spanish regime executed Rizal for his two novels which they deemed seditious, the imperial regime of the Ching Dynasty in 1899 appointed Engracio Palanca Tan Quien-Sien as its first consul general to the Philippines then ruled by Spain. His wealthy father was the famous Chinese community leader Carlos Palanca Tan Quien Sien whose title was "capitan" and was the official liaison with the Spanish regime, while his mother was a Filipina. The elder Palanca was the baptismal godfather of poor immigrant Carlos Palanca Tan Guinlay who in the early 20th century founded La Tondeña Distillery. Along with other Chinese tycoons like "bazaar king" and Philippine STAR founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte’s maternal forebear Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco, the elder Palanca was attributed to have established the Chinese General Hospital in 1891 and was a leader of the Philippine Chinese Charitable Association.
Like the scions of wealthy Chinese tycoons in Southeast Asia then and now, the mestizo Engracio Palanca Tan Quien Sien was sent to China to study his ancestral culture. He was well-educated in the Confucian classics and even obtained the title of "jin shi" in government civic service exams for this fourth high-ranking post in the imperial court. One of his legacies was the establishment of the first Chinese-language school in the Philippines, the Anglo-Chinese School (also called Tiong Se Academy) in 1899 and which still exists in the Meisic area of Manila near the 168 Mall. In the early 20th century, activist Engracio was chronicled to have led the "boycott American goods" movement in Xiamen City, Fujian province, to protest the extension of the controversial Chinese Exclusion Act to territories of the United States such as the Philippine Islands.
Today, all nations from the US to Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe are diplomatically engaging the rising economic superpower China in order to tap the dazzling market of 1.3 billion people. Befriending China is no longer for purely diplomatic or strategic rationale, but also for mutual economic benefits. Due to geographical proximity and our rich natural resources, the Philippines complements this economic dynamo – we can benefit by exporting minerals, by producing more agriculture, foodstuffs and processed goods for the increasingly affluent Chinese market.
According to a recent China tourism industry survey reported by the media in East Asia, more than 24.3 million tourists from the Chinese mainland will visit four major tourism cities in Asia from 2004 to 2011: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul. Ambassador Li Jinjun hopes that under his term, China will rise to become the No. 2 source of foreign tourists to the Philippines.
In his speech before the 300 Filipino-Chinese business, civic, cultural and other organizations led by the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry Inc. at the Manila Hotel, the Ambassador extolled the ethnic Chinese community for being exemplary Filipino citizens contributing to the economic, social and other developments of the Philippines. He also cited the Chinese minority, which comprised an estimated two percent of the 84 million Philippine population, for efforts in promoting the 1,000-year-old friendship between the Philippines and China. A taipan told the Philippine STAR: "We members of the Filipino-Chinese community have a special responsibility, that of forever working for the friendship and mutual understanding between the Philippines and China. It’s like we’re the guy who ensures the good friendship between our wife and our mother, no matter what. This is a win-win situation for all."
Ambassador Li said that bilateral trade was $13.3 billion last year and is expected to break records this year at $17 billion. He hopes that trade between the two countries will expand and predicted faster growth in investments, tourism, cultural and other exchanges during his tenure. Before he wowed the crowd at the welcome reception by singing several Mandarin pop songs, Ambassador Li said that now is the "golden age" of Philippine-China relations.