{"id":200015,"date":"2019-01-30T03:09:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T08:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=200015"},"modified":"2019-01-30T03:09:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T08:09:44","slug":"envoy-praises-sustained-growth-in-ph-china-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/30\/envoy-praises-sustained-growth-in-ph-china-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Envoy praises ‘sustained growth’ in PH-China relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua speaks at the Embassy-organized Spring Festival reception in Makati Shangri-La on Tuesday (Jan. 29, 2019). (Photo by Joyce Ann L. Rocamora via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Chinese top diplomat in Manila praised the “sustained betterment and growth” in the Philippine-China relations as tourist arrivals from Beijing increased, and the construction of China-funded infrastructure projects in the country progressed “positively” in 2018.<\/p>\n

“Over the past two years, under the guidance of our two leaders, China-Philippine relations have achieved an overall turnaround, enjoyed a sustained growth with strength and depth, and surged forward along a fast track,” Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said at the Spring Festival Reception in Makati City on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He noted that “the year 2018 witnessed a sustained betterment and growth of China-Philippines relations.”<\/p>\n

Zhao said China is the Philippines’ fastest growing tourist source market after it received a total of 1.25 million Chinese visitors in 2018, achieving a 29.6 percent year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n

The construction of drug-rehabilitation centers, two bridges over Pasig River and the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project funded by China\u2019s grants or soft loans have also “made positive progress,” Zhao added.<\/p>\n

Moreover, China remains as the Philippines\u2019 “top trading partner and import origin, and the fourth largest export market.”<\/p>\n

In the past two years, Zhao said China has imported more than 2 million tons of tropical fruits from the Philippines which generated more than USD1.5-billion revenue for 40,000 Filipino farmers.<\/p>\n

During the first China International Import Expo held in Shanghai last November 2018, the envoy also noted that Philippine companies sold USD124 million-worth of goods and services.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Zhao attributed this progress to the “support and facilitation provided by the friends of China from all walks of life and the Chinese communities in the Philippines.”<\/p>\n

China and the Philippines made efforts to thaw its frozen ties following decades of bitter maritime dispute over the West Philippine Sea.<\/p>\n

Under the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, the Philippines decided to follow a compartmentalized approach in engaging China by putting into separate tracks the pursuit to improved economic and cultural ties, and the issue of territorial dispute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Chinese top diplomat in Manila praised the “sustained betterment and growth” in the Philippine-China relations as tourist arrivals …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":200017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}