In the past, the Philippines and China enjoyed fruitful win-win relations, which greatly benefited the peoples, Joson Shi-Nai Kang, a Philippine business leader with Chinese origin, told Xinhua.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Kang, the president of Asian-Pacific Association for Economic and Cultural Communication (AAECC), a nongovernmental organization founded by business leaders and well-known elites from Asian-Pacific countries to work on folk exchanges, criticized the current South China Sea policy of the Philippines but remained optimistic on the prospect of Philippine-China relations.
He said that the administration of President Benigno Aquino III's claim of sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its unilateral action of bringing the issue to arbitration in The Hague had severely destroyed Philippines' ties with China, as well as the Philippines' national interests and its people's livelihood.
"It is normal for two countries to have differences. The key is to effectively manage the disputes, cherish the existing schemes of dialogue and try to find constructive resolution in a cooperative way," Kang added.
According to Kang, Chinese and Philippine fishermen used to enjoy a friendship before the deterioration of the South China Sea issue.
They could fish freely in the disputed waters and Chinese fishermen were willing to buy what their Philippine counterparts catched with favorable prices. When extreme weather threatened their fishing, they could even share safety in the same lagoon.
"Isn't that peaceful coexistence good?" Kang asked, adding that it's not only the fishermen's welfare that was affected by the worsened relations between the two countries.
Major fruit exports from the Philippines to China lost its favorable conditions, and fewer Chinese tourists are coming to the Philippines, which ultimately harms the South Asian country's economy and hurt the Philippine people, the business leader said.
Speaking of the pending arbitration, Kang said he sees no profit for the Philippines and called the arbitration "a political counting frame."
"It's Aquino III's ambition and the Americans' plot that are behind the counting frame, but any wise men can spot flaws in it," Kang said.
In Kang's opinion, it's the U.S. rebalance strategy in the Asia-Pacific that is fanning the Philippines' ambition in the South China Sea. "When most Southeast Asian countries remain reasonable (to the U.S. incentive), Aquino III stood out for the United States and intended to be its pawn."
Nevertheless, Kang said dialogue channels between the Philippines and China still exist, adding that the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) signed by China and ASEAN countries in 2002 has created the conditions for peaceful settlement of South China Sea disputes.
"In order to peacefully solve sovereign disputes, both sides have to sit down and negotiate. Dialogue is always the most effective way to settle conflicts," Kang said.
Looking into the future, Kang, however, remains optimistic. He said that the incoming president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, clearly knows the importance of Philippines-China relations and the urgency to make that relations back on track.
"The replacement of Philippine leadership and the subtle change to the country's diplomatic senses are releasing signals of improvement and reconciliation of Philippine-Sino relations," Kang said.
"We are permanent Chinese residents in the Philippines with utmost understanding about the local culture and Duterte himself. Referring to future bilateral relations, in our opinion, there should be more communication and less provocation, more constructive opinion and less troublemaking," the business leader concluded.
