Dealing with the ‘new’ China, or is it the old China?

The glittering gala banquet in Malacañang Wednesday night had so many Taipans in attendance that it demonstrated beyond doubt that it’s our Filipinos of Chinese ancestry – somehow, I’m uncomfortable with the word "Chinoys" – who’re now running business, banking and finance in this country.

That all these capitalists were gathered in the Palace to pay their respects not just to our own Presidenta but to the President of the biggest Communist state today, the People’s Republic of China, is a commentary on the growing financial might of China today. President Hu Jintao, 62, is not merely China’s President, thus ruling 1.3 billion people, but General Secretary of the 65-million-member Communist Party which represent, pardon the expression, the reigning elite. Moreover, as chairman of the Military Commission, a position he took over from the reluctant former President Jiang Zemin, President Hu Jintao controls the People’s Liberation Army, Navy, Air Force and all military forces.

In short, he’s the Boss.

President GMA’s speech was laudatory, referring to our relations with China as a new "golden age," almost exactly the same term used by Speaker Joe de Venecia Jr., at Wednesday afternoon’s joint session of Congress, who called his address, "The beginning of a golden age in Philippine Chinese Relations."

In the Palace affair, GMA challenged both China and RP to raise bilateral trade from $13 billion this year to $30 billion next year. President Hu responded in similarly sweet fashion, although his delivery was more deadpan. Oh well. GMA and Hu are by now old friends. His state visit here is in response to her state visit to China a few months ago.

You’ll have to give credit to Speaker de Venecia for pushing for China to help us build our North Rail – a project he worked on during the administrations of former President Jiang Zemin, Li Peng (as Chairman of the Standing Committee) and Premier Zhu Rongji, and then with Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, etc. With the $500 million agreement already signed, JDV could now announce in his speech that "Chinese builders are about to begin construction – on concessional terms – of the first phase of the railways modernization program from Manila to Clark Field in Pampanga province, and eventually beyond to Northern Luzon and the Bicol Region." (Nothing is said in the deal about further North, or the Bicol Region, but that’s Joe. Hope springs eternal, and he really works overtime to make his rainbow dreams come true).

In any event, with Hu’s visit coming to a successful close, let’s hope for the best.

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Walking from the Guest House to the main Palace for the dinner, I was able to renew my acquaintance with China’s Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing – whom I had met when the late Vice-President and concurrently Foreign Affairs Secretary Salvador "Doy" Laurel went to Beijing in 1986 to meet with then Chairman Deng Xiaoping. I was then a member of the Philippine Foreign Policy Council and accompanied Doy to the meeting in the Great Hall of the People, along with the late Ambassador Luis Moreno Salcedo and other envoys.

Minister Li, one of Deng’s "disciples", was – as he described himself Wednesday night – a "note-taker" at the meeting. Our Foreign Affairs Secretary, Bert Romulo, smilingly re-introduced us and we recognized each other. I must say that Minister Li has lost none of the charm he exhibited in his younger days, and, if anything, has acquired the sort of cheerful gravitas unusual in the persona of a Foreign Minister of an… okay, incipient Big Power. We held hands all the way up the stairs, with Bert locking arms with him on the other side. I hope no lurking photographer managed to snap this schoolboy-type breach of protocol.

I remember that meeting very well, and have described it in earlier columns. It was at that conference that Chairman Deng first reminded us of our rival claims on the Spratlys. In his putonghwa carrying his usual strong Schezuwan accent, Deng had inquired with deceptive mildness: "How do you call our Nansha Islands?"

Doy Laurel was dumbfounded, but you know Doy. Nothing flummoxed him. He turned to our group and in a stage whisper heard all over the room asked in Tagalog: "What do we call those islands he’s talking about, just where the hell are they?"

Someone stammered that he thought Deng was referring to what "Admiral Cloma" had called "Freedomland." It was Ambassador Moreno Salcedo who finally came up with the real answer: "He’s referring to our Kalayaan Islands (the Spratlys)."

Anyway, Deng smiled and asserted: "Well, those islands belong to China. But we’ll defer discussion or argument on that for another day."

That other day came soon enough.

At least they’re still not claiming Sulu, since once upon a time, it’s recorded a Sultan of Jolo went to China to pay "homage" to the Emperor, but died on his journey home and is buried there.

* * *

I believe one of the most fascinating books written on the burgeoning clout of Beijing is a volume which just came out, published by Scribner, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, 2005. The book, entitled "CHINA, INC." is subtitled, "How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World."

The author Ted C. Fishman, whose articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Money, Harper’s, Esquire, USA Today, and GQ is both a journalist and former commodities trader.

Among the Trivia dished out by Fishman are: (1) 220 billion text messages were sent over mobile phones in China last year 2004; (2) China has more speakers of English as a second language than America has native English speakers; (3) More people use the Internet in China than in the United States; (4) China has more than 300 biotech firms that operate unhindered by animal rights lobbies, religious groups, or ethical standards boards; (5) 300 million rural Chinese will move to cities in the next 15 years. China must build urban infrastructure equivalent to Houston’s every month in order to absorb them; (6) General Motors expects the Chinese automobile market to be bigger than the US market by 2025. Some 74 million Chinese families can now afford to buy cars; (7) there are 220 million "surplus workers" in China’s central and western regions. The number working in the US is about 140 million; (8) One in ten American jobs is at risk of being ‘offshored’; (9) there are 186 MBA programs in China; (10) China’s sex industry alone needs 1 billion condoms a year; (11) China has 320 million people under the age of 14, more than the entire population of the United States; and (12) Apparel workers in the US make $9.56 an hour. In El Salvador, apparel workers make $1.65. In China, they make between 68 and 88 cents."

By golly. And that’s just for starters.

* * *

This will catch many of his friends and the diplomatic corps by surprise.

Although it has been long rumored that US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone Jr. will shortly be leaving the Philippines, nobody expected him to officially return to the US so early – including Frank himself. They must need him badly for reassignment, because Ricciardone is departing ahead of schedule, on May 13th.

The scuttlebutt earlier was that Frank, who speaks and writes fluent Arabic, not to mention some Turkish and Persian from longtime postings in Ankara and Iran, (also Italian) and knows northern Iraq very well, including dealing with the Kurds during Bill Clinton’s time, might be assigned to head the huge but imperilled 3,000-man Embassy in Baghdad in the post recently vacated by another former Ambassador to the Philippines, John Negroponte, who has just been confirmed by the US Senate as President George W. Bush’s… well, Super Spy Chief to whom 14 American intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must report.

However, it’s now reported that Ricciardone might be appointed instead to a similarly key post, that of Ambassador to Cairo (Egypt).

Cairo is the headquarters of the Arab League and a pivotal player in the turbulent Middle East. I have to say that Frank Ricciardone will be sorely missed here. Since he first arrived in Manila on February 2, 2000 – just in time for the GMA takeover of the Presidency – Frank in three years demonstrated himself the most friendly to Filipinos of all previous American envoys. He, in fact, became a Philippines-booster with gusto and enthusiasm – not to mention his supportive attitude towards the GMA administration. We wish him Godspeed and good luck in his next posting – whether Cairo, Baghdad or whatever!

John Negroponte, of course, was a close personal friend, too. He and his wife Diana used to come for dinner at home and we would reminisce over the old Vietnam Days (he met his dynamic British-born wife, Diana, there). When John was assigned to Baghdad, he sent his greetings to me through Norma and Lauro Baja (the latter our envoy to the United Nations). I returned his regards and said I hoped he wouldn’t bring Diana along to Fortress Baghdad. Now, to our surprise, he’s literally America’s Chief Spook – at least we’ll have a friendly spook.

Who’s going to be the next American Ambassador here? We hear it’s Cameron Hume, currently Ambassador to South Africa and a former UN hand as well. We’ll wait to see the cut of his job.