Noy wants better China ties

BEIJING – After being disinvited to a trade expo in Nanning and with bilateral relations strained by maritime territorial disputes, President Aquino returned to China yesterday, saying he wanted to improve ties.

“We seek to have harmonious relationship with everybody so that we can concentrate on solving domestic problems that have to be addressed now. And we actually firmly believe without stability, prosperity is an impossibility,” Aquino told chief executive officers ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

China feted Aquino in a state visit in 2011, but bilateral relations have gone downhill since then.

Yesterday, Aquino recalled that he and then Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed that the “be-all and end-all of our relationships do not have to be with just one particular issue” because there were many other aspects that must be considered. Aquino did not mention the West Philippine Sea dispute.

He said it was in the interest of the Philippines to achieve harmony with all of its neighbors because there were many practices that each country could benefit from when faced with common challenges.

“Anything that fosters greater stability is an objective for us because we do want more prosperity for our people and together with the rest of our brothers and sisters throughout the region and the world,” the President said.

He said he was heartened to hear from Hu that cooperation in other areas of bilateral relations would continue.

Aquino said Philippine companies invested about $2.5 billion in the Chinese economy and in turn, China gave about $600 million in investments.

“We are happy to note that for instance in trade, there is a very significant growth in trade between our countries. In so many different other aspects, even from food production, there has been a lot of cooperation already. In people-to-people exchanges, provision of numerous teachers of Mandarin for our countrymen has also been coming into the country,” the President said.

“We send something like 800,000 tourists into China’s way and China sent us 200,000 tourists. So all of these numbers, I am told, have continued to grow,” he added.