The Philippine "pro-China faction" shed tears at the venue, the Philippine foreign minister pleaded with China to negotiate, and the 72-year-old Cui Tiankai came out again, pointing out the key to the problem, how to view the current China-Philippines relations? What did Cui Tiankai say? What is the reason why the Philippine foreign minister is in a hurry to have a dialogue with the Chinese side?
Recently, a forum to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing. At the event, Lambino, chairman of the Philippine-Chinese Understanding Association, could not help but choke up with tears when talking about the current tensions between China and the Philippines, and he believed that the current Marcos administration's erroneous China policy has led to very bad relations between China and the Philippines, and the United States has played an important role in this.
At present, the United States already has nine military bases in the Philippines, and as a Filipino, he does not want the country to become a battlefield. It is undeniable that the Marcos administration is pushing the Philippines into the abyss step by step. Prior to this, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had publicly declared that the Philippines allowed the US military to set up four new military bases in the Philippines last year for the purpose of dealing with China. In addition, he has repeatedly threatened to invoke the so-called "U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" if any Philippine military personnel are killed in the South China Sea. The Philippine ambassador to the United States also openly threatened and intimidated China with the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty", clamoring that "the conflict between China and the Philippines at Ren'ai Jiao may spread to the entire Indo-Pacific region, and even raise fears of nuclear war, and the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty is serious." It is against this backdrop that Rambino shed tears when he talked about the current China-Philippines relations.
As for the current Sino-Philippine relations, 72-year-old former Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, stressed that without the intervention of external forces, China-Philippines relations would be much better than they are now, but the difficulties encountered are not too big problems. As long as China and the Philippines eliminate external interference, China-Philippines relations can be put back on the right track.
Indeed, the biggest disruption in China-Philippines relations comes from the outside, the most prominent being the United States. At present, the Biden administration of the United States is vigorously promoting its so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy", and the Philippines is an important starting point for it, instigating the Philippines to disrupt the South China Sea and undermine regional stability, and then allow the United States to attract more Western allies to intervene in the South China Sea affairs, further exacerbating regional contradictions and conflicts, and containing China. A few days ago, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Philippine Secretary of Defense Teodoro had a telephone conversation, once again hyping up the Philippine side's delivery of supplies to the broken ship that "beached" China's Ren'ai Jiao on June 17.
Why did Austin choose to speak with the Philippine defense secretary at this time? First, strengthen U.S.-Philippine military cooperation; Second, there have been voices in the Philippines that are interested in dialogue with China, which has made the United States unable to sit still and take the opportunity to "knock" the Philippine side. Not long ago, Philippine Foreign Secretary Manaro publicly stated in a question in the Philippine Senate that the Philippines hopes to hold dialogue with China on the South China Sea issue to resolve differences. At the same time, he also mentioned that China and the Philippines had previously held a working group meeting in preparation for a possible meeting of the Bilateral Consultative Mechanism on the South China Sea in July.
In addition, a few days ago, the director of the Philippine National Economic and Development Agency, Balisacan, claimed that "there will be no obstacles to overseas investment and trade, including China." He said that while the Philippines and China are "at odds" over the South China Sea, "economics and politics should be separated." Before that, two other Philippine diplomats in China called on China to continue to explore China's tropical fruit market and attract Chinese investment, especially in China's "new three" fields, which have been suppressed by the United States and the West, namely new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products.
So why did the Philippine side suddenly plead to negotiate with China and seek cooperation? There are at least two reasons for this: First, it is difficult for the Philippines to completely get rid of China economically, especially after Chinese investors chose to avoid the Philippines by detour, and the Philippines has become more nervous about this. China is the Philippines' largest trading partner, largest source of imports, and second largest export market. At present, there are many signs in the Philippines that many Chinese companies have stopped or canceled their projects in the Philippines due to national sentiment and unfair treatment of policies; Second, the Philippines is "beaching" China's Ren'ai Jiao, and the ship-breaking limit is approaching, and it will sink into the sea at any time. In the video of the old Philippine warship recently released by the Chinese side, a detail can be clearly found, that is, there is a huge crack in the Philippine ship's "beaching" ship, and it is only a matter of time before the shipwreck sinks to the bottom of the sea.