Chinese Top Leaders to Visit PH, Other Asian Countries

Two top leaders of China will visit Asian countries including the Philippines after the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress which kicked off on Wednesday, a Chinese foreign official said.

Yao Wen, deputy director general for policy planning of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Asian department, said both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang would visit Vietnam and Manila, respectively.

“The visits in Asian countries prove only that China is giving importance to its relations with its Asian neighbors,” Yao said in a meeting with Asian journalists covering the once-in-five-years CPC national congress.

Yao said Premier Li would attend the 2017 ASEAN Summit in Manila and is expected to have bilateral meetings with the top Filipino leaders including President Rodrigo Duterte.

President Xi is also reportedly planning to make his first-ever state visit to the Philippines next year.

Both Xi and Li are expected to retain their top two government positions in China during the CPC Congress to be attended by 2,287 delegates chosen from the Party’s over 89 million members.

President Duterte visited Beijing in October last year upon Xi’s invitation and returned at the Chinese capital last May to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

Duterte’s two visits to China since his election in June last year had rekindled China-Philippines relations which turned acerbic due to the previous administration’s decision to file arbitration case to contest China’s nine-dash line claims in the West Philippines Sea (South China Sea).

The Philippines got favorable decision but President Duterte decided to temporarily shelve The Hague-based Permanent Court Arbitration’s ruling to give way to a peaceful negotiation and resolution of the disputes.

Yao said China is committed to build sound relationship with the Philippines and other Asian countries and to maintain peace and stability in the region.

He believed that through Belt and Road Initiative, China and neighboring countries could share common development through economic, policy, financial and people-to-people exchanges.

“Countries along Belt and Road are mostly developing and through this initiative, we could share more opportunities and projects particularly interconnectivity with Asian neighboring countries,” Yao said.

Last year, Yao said total trade volume between China and Asian countries exceeded USD1.3 trillion while half of 120 million outbound Chinese tourists went to Asian countries including 10 million in Thailand.

This year, the Philippines is hoping to get one million tourists from China, the world’s second largest economy.

“I have full confidence that bilateral relations between China and Asian countries will have brighter future,” Yao told the journalists. (PNA)