Your Excellencies,
Friends from the media,
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good evening!
Welcome to the 13th Manila Forum for China-Philippines Relations and Annual Christmas Media Party co-hosted by the Embassy and the Association for Philippines-China Understanding. Let me start by saying Maligáyang Paskó at Manígong Bágong Taón! (Merry X’mas and a Happy New Year).
To look over my conversations with Philippine friends and colleagues throughout the year, I found that there is no issue bigger than China and the United States. It’s fair to say any domestic development in the two countries casts a long shadow over the region and the rest of the world. We can’t pretend not to have noticed that the world is bracing for a second term of Donald Trump. Nor can we deny that there is a considerable amount of anxiety about what the future holds for the world and the region.
For those who are interested in China, there are also contending theories about the “Dragon from the East.” Here, I would like to share with you three perspectives:
To understand China, we first need to view the country with an “evolving perspective”. My friend and Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime Florcruz once said “What remains unchanged for China is it keeps changing.” What surprises me in my dialogues with the local people is that many still look at China as the one they saw or read decades ago. When I was working at the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. during the 2008 international financial crisis, China’s GDP was the third largest in the world, but quite a distance behind Japan. 16 years later, China’s economy is nearly four times that of Japan.
To support the development with some unfamiliar figures: China’s high-speed railways are built from literally nothing, and now are running at a total mileage of over 46,000 kilometers. Be reminded, I’m talking about “bullet train” tracks. And an interesting analogy on top of that is the high-speed tracks are now functioning the metro does in cities. Reasonably, it only takes a few hours to reach cities hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. China’s high-speed maglev with a speed of 600km/h has rolled off the assembly and production line. China never stops moving forward.
These are just a glimpse of China’s changes. The biggest change in China’s overall economy in the past decades is the rise of industrial manufacturing, which underpins and drives China’s development. There was a time when “Made in China” was associated with inexpensive and poor-quality products. Not any more. Today, China’s value-added industrial production accounts for around 30 percent of the global total, more than that of the G7 countries combined. “Made in China” marks are everywhere across the globe. We see them on Christmas decorations, Pop Mart toys, and Huawei smart phones. China’s new energy vehicles that shout design, performance and wonderful consumer experience have captured a large number of fans at home and abroad. Chinese EV production and sales have been the largest in the world for 9 consecutive years. Against global protectionism and man-made technological barriers, China still has remarkable advantages in infrastructure, industrial and supply chains, etc. The next “China” is still China.
In addition, after being cashless society, new business models and new fields of growth are taking shape rapidly in China. Things unimaginable five years ago are now reality, to name just a few: sourcing across the world through e-commerce channels, takeout food “falling from the sky”, “unmanned taxi” and “flying taxi” (eVTOL aircraft) as means of transportation, and robots follow the police on patrol, and more awaits.
To understand China, we need to view its development from a “people’s perspective”. It’s not up to a few dignitaries to decide whether the country develops well or not, however, whether the fruits of development truly benefit the general public is the “golden standard”. From employment to income, from school enrolment to medical care, from housing to the elderly care, people-centred philosophy permeates all aspects of economic and social development. The Chinese Government focuses on what the people care about and what they expect, and is committed to turning their expectations into a list of development initiatives which will make people’s lives better.
It is for this reason that we have been able to lift all 800 million people out of poverty on time and achieve the poverty reduction goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ahead of schedule. The hope of the Chinese people for thousands of years, that “no one will be left behind due to unfairness or poverty”, has come true. As a result, countless people have changed their destiny and realized happiness. Additionally, the Chinese people have been closing or reaching the level of developed economies in terms of per capita life expectancy, consumption of meat, egg and fish, per capita housing space and the Gini index.
As people are better off, their demands for fairness, justice, democracy and the rule of law are on the rise. Imagine if there are people pulling strings behind the scenes for higher education, enterprises, projects, houses, jobs and other opportunities, there will be hardly justice. The Chinese people hate corruption above all else, and corruption is also the direct trigger for the downfall of successive dynasties in Chinese history. In response to the people’s expectations, the Chinese Government has given priority to the anti-corruption and the promotion of honesty and integrity. With the sense of mission of “it’s better to offend thousands of corrupt officials than to let down 1.4 billion people”, we have unswervingly fought against high-ranking “tigers” as well as low-level “flies”, which have widely won people’s support. A survey in 2022 shows that 97.4 percent of the public believe that the Chinese government works effectively, which is 22.4 percent higher than that in 2012. Meanwhile, the Chinese government sees it as its duty to fight crime and maintain social stability. China enjoys one of the world’s lowest rate of fatal cases and criminal offenses, and the fewest cases of firearms and explosives, and the country has had no incidents of massive riots for more than seven consecutive years. Many foreign visitors in China are amazed at the good public security in China, where they can hang out at 2 a.m., leave their electric cars unlocked and their express packages at their doorsteps, which they have not experienced before.
To understand China, we need to view the Chinese modernization with a “broader perspective”. In China, there is an ancient belief back to 1200 B.C. called “When there is harmony within society, there is peace among all states”. It means that China not only delivers a better life for its people, but also for people around the world. For us Chinese, we will do well only when the world does well, and vice versa. Guided by such spirit, China strives to provide new opportunities for world development with its new achievements of Chinese modernization. China sticks to the right path of peaceful development, and advocates bridging differences through dialogue, resolving disputes through cooperation, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
To this end, we’re committed to open development. China embraces globalization and opposes returning to the old era of separated society and dispersed feudal world. China vigorously promotes high-level opening up and gives all the least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. We also fully open up access to the manufacturing sector, continuously shorten the negative list of foreign investment access nationwide, and provide a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. Recently, we have unilaterally offered visa-free entry to 29 countries, welcoming foreign visitors with our open arms. “CHINA TRAVEL” has been trending on YouTube and Instagram.
We’re committed to green development. We promise to achieve the transition from carbon peak to carbon neutrality within the shortest time in history. We have built the world’s most complete new energy industry chain, and the largest renewable energy market. China’s wind power and photovoltaic products have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions, contributing China’s strength in addressing climate change. We have launched the largest tree planting campaign in human history and successfully planted nearly 100 million hectares of artificial forests, ranking first in the world. As such, forest coverage has doubled from 12% to more than 25% in just over 40 years. My hometown Fujian Province has become the “greenest” province in China, with a forest coverage rate of 65.12%. The Maowusu Desert, which has plagued the people of northern Shaanxi for hundreds of years, is about to become an oasis. A greener China makes the world a greener planet.
We’re committed to peaceful development. At present, the world is far from peaceful and there are many uncertainties. The Ukraine crisis, conflict in the Middle East and other international and regional hotspots have been dragging on. That being said, our region has generally maintained a peaceful and stable environment, which should be all the more cherished. China is the only country that has put peaceful development in its Constitution, and the only country among the five nuclear-weapon states to pledge no-first-use of nuclear weapons. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we have never provoked a war, started a proxy war, or occupied an inch of others’ land. When we are baselessly accused of being a security threat by former colonialists and aggressors, we can stand the test of history and are soberly aware of the reasons behind. China and the Philippines have maritime differences, but China has always insisted on managing and addressing the differences through dialogue and consultation. We have maintained self-restraint, and at the same time will take resolute measures against provocations, and safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.
Ladies and gentlemen:
Seeing is believing. We’re close neighbors, with only two-hour flight from Manila to Chinese coastal cities. We welcome you to travel to China and see it with your own eyes. You can also listen to the feelings of the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos living in China, which may help you to understand what China really is.
Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you, especially friends from the media, for your efforts to enhance mutual understanding between our two countries. I believe you will continue to pursue a high sense of social responsibility, help the Filipino people to understand China better and do whatever can be done to enhance mutual understanding among our two peoples! Thank you! Mabuhay! And again, wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
