Philippines President Marcos flies to Beijing to woo China

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived in Beijing today for a 48-hour visit, during which he is expected to meet Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and No. 2 Lǐ Kèqiáng 李克强 in a bid to deepen ties with the world’s second-largest economy.

• The visit will be Marcos’s first foreign trip for 2023 and his first bilateral visit to a non-ASEAN country, ever since the son of the former dictator won a sweeping election victory in May.
• Marcos will also be the first foreign head of state China receives in the new year, marking the second face-to-face meeting between the two heads of state in less than two months.
• “I look forward…to shifting the trajectory of our relations to a higher gear,” Marcos said in a speech before departing for Beijing.
• The trip “fully demonstrates the high importance China and the Philippines attach to bilateral relations,” in hopes of ushering in a new “golden age,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wāng Wénbīn 汪文斌 said last Friday.

Several key bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the trip, in areas such as agriculture, energy, infrastructure, science and technology, trade and investment, and people-to-people exchanges.

• China is one of the Philippines’ major trading partners, accounting for some 20% of the Southeast Asian nation’s imports: “China imports 70% of its nickel ore and concentrates requirements from the Philippines. So there’s a lot of potential in those sectors,” Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Nathaniel Imperial said last week.
• The meetings are “also expected to build on the growing trade and investment ties between the two economies as well as address security issues of mutual concern,” Imperial added.

“To avoid miscalculations” in disputed waters, the two sides are also expected to establish lines of direct communication, according to a press release from the Philippines government. This includes signing a memorandum of understanding “on [a] communication mechanism on maritime issues” and a “joint action plan on agricultural and fisheries cooperation,” Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said Tuesday per Bloomberg.

• Tensions between Manila and Beijing have again been brewing over the South China Sea (or West Philippine Sea), in which both sides stake separate territorial claims: The Philippine defense department earlier moved to strengthen its military presence in the disputed waters, after Bloomberg reported in late December 2022 that China was building up infrastructure in several unoccupied land features. China’s foreign ministry has denied the report.