Locsin meets Chinese vice president in Beijing

MANILA, Philippines — As the first order of business on his visit to Beijing, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. met with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Tuesday.

The Philippines' top diplomat is in China for an official visit upon the invitation of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"Vice President Wang reaffirmed China’s commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations with the Philippines through cooperation for common development on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual trust," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Locsin, on the other hand, expressed admiration for the "hard work and talent" of the Chinese people while Wang talked about the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, as well as the country's economic managers, were also present in the meeting.

The economic managers, led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, are in China for an economic briefing.

The Philippine economic managers briefed the Chinese vice president on the status of infrastructure projects between Manila and Beijing.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Philippines last year, the two countries signed several agreements, including infrastructure projects as part of the Duterte administration's "Build, Build, Build" project.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had warned the Philippines to be careful with accepting loans from China.

The Malaysian leader said the Philippines should avoid making the same mistakes of other countries that fell into China's "debt trap."

“If you borrow huge sums of money from China and you cannot pay—you know when a person is a borrower he is under the control of the lender. So we have to be very careful with that,” Mahathir said in an interview with ANC during his visit to Manila a few weeks ago.

The Department of Finance, meanwhile, stressed that China's loan offers to the Philippines were not disadvantageous as the country benefited from low interest rates.

“The terms of the loan obtained by the Duterte administration are at least 30 percent better than the loan secured by the Arroyo administration, (which was) wholeheartedly accepted by the Aquino administration,” Dominguez earlier said. — Patricia Lourdes Viray