Wenceslao: Xi Jinping’s visit

CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING is in the country, the first Chinese leader of his rank to make a state visit in the Philippines in 13 years. The visit comes at a time of ambivalence: President Rodrigo Duterte has moved closer to China but the majority of Filipinos are wary of China’s intentions, especially in the South China Sea. Many Filipinos don’t trust China, that’s according to a recent survey.

China wants to forge an agreement for a joint exploration in the West Philippine Sea (which is part of the South China Sea) where the country’s territorial dispute with Xi Jinping’s country has been simmering.

The Philippines, through former president Noynoy Aquino, got a favorable ruling on that dispute from a United Nations tribunal, but that has been wasted with the Duterte administration’s shift in foreign policy. The President even said recently that China virtually owns now the South China Sea.

Xi Jinping’s visit will show us where this government is headed. The shift in foreign policy towards China and away from the United States is not particularly liked by many Filipinos who still cherish our ties with the Americans, more so that a good number of Filipinos are already living in the US. Of course, those who don’t like the US because they see that country as imperialist hail the shift.

Are we jumping from the frying pan into the fire? Considering how China has been maneuvering to solidify its hold on the disputed territories in the South China Sea even to the point of building islands there, we just might be doing that. I just hope the rope China tied around our throat won’t be tightened further after the signing of the joint exploration framework by the President and Xi.

On this, it might be good to understand how Xi is running China’s affairs. I reckon many Filipinos think that China’s structure of government is the same as ours. It isn’t. We have a bourgeois republic, that of China is one that is ruled with an iron hand by the Communist Party of China (CPC). China may have become a capitalist, even an imperialist state, but it is still being ruled by a party with a communist ideology.

Unlike in the case of the ruling party in Philippine politics, CPC’s hold on the whole of China is real. The CPC’s organizational structure is such that its members hold sway not only in the higher rungs of the government but also down to the lowest level. And its decisions are collectively done and implemented, which means that whatever Xi does here will not deviate from the intentions of the CPC.

Of course, the Chinese government is not the CPC. Many of those in the government bureaucracy are not members of the party, but it is the party that lays down the direction of the government and the entire country. That is why it would be safe to assume that whatever Xi does here has the blessings of the party. If the joint exploration of the West Philippine Sea by China and our country is a strategy, it is not solely Xi’s strategy.

It is good for us to monitor how the President will deal with Xi. The future of our country and of the future generations is at stake here.

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