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In Bid for Friendship Renewal, China Offers Philippines More Development
Money

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China has pledged to help fund a $169 billion
   infrastructure renewal drive in the Philippines, an apparent bid for
   friendship as Filipinos question whether officials in Beijing are
   trying to squelch their maritime sovereignty claims.

   Over the past year, Chinese boats have surrounded a Philippine-held
   islet in a disputed tract of the South China Sea. A collision between
   vessels from the two countries sank a Philippine boat in June.
   Filipinos want China to honor a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of
   Arbitration in the Hague against the legal basis for its sovereignty
   claims to the sea, but Chinese officials reject the verdict.

   Too much distaste for China could pivot the Philippines closer to the
   United States, a staunch military supporter, and to Japan, a steady
   development aid donor. China is at odds with both Tokyo and Washington
   politically.

   Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who made peace with China in 2016
   by setting aside the maritime dispute, met last week with Chinese
   President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Li vowed to "step
   up cooperation" on the five-year Philippine infrastructure drive,
   Duterte's website said.

   "Perhaps it's a way to reassure the government and at the same time
   also the public that it remains committed to the support in terms of
   the infrastructure projects in the Philippines," said Maria Ela
   Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the
   Philippines Diliman.
   "At the same time, maybe they thought it's a way to placate the rising
   dissatisfaction of the public and even some sectors in government about
   the Chinese movements in the EEZ [maritime exclusive economic zone] of
   the Philippines," she said.

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