Philippines should secure new trade deals to pivot away from China, lawmakers urge

Senators are urging President Marcos to seek other economic allies instead of remaining dependent on China, the Philippines’ biggest trade partner
The economic concerns come on top of the South China Sea maritime dispute that Manila and Beijing have long been locked in

The Philippines

SCMP’s Asia desk

Published: 7:01pm, 8 Aug 2023

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Philippine senators have heaped pressure on the Ferdinand Marcos Jnr administration to shun Chinese companies and products, in retaliation against Beijing’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the country should cast its commerce net wide to attract other allies instead of remaining dependent on China, Manila’s largest trading partner.

“Let’s also look for other trading partners where we can grow and improve our economy so that we don’t have to rely on China and its goods,” Zubiri said.

He added the Philippines could take a leaf out of Vietnam’s economic playbook on how to pivot from the Asian giant.

How South China Sea controversies put Chinese interests in Vietnam at stake

Zubiri also called on the government to pursue free-trade deals with other Asean nations and countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand. “So we can just boycott the Chinese-made products and the Chinese companies operating here to express our anger towards them,” he said.

Last year, bilateral trade between the Philippines and China stood at US$87.7 billion.

Zubiri’s appeal came after Manila accused the Chinese coastguard of firing water cannons at its ships that were escorting boats carrying supplies for Filipino troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

On Monday, Manila summoned Beijing’s envoy to protest against the weekend’s incident. China’s coastguard countered that it had implemented “necessary controls” in accordance with the law to deter Philippine ships, which it accused of trespassing and carrying illegal building materials.

China also demanded the Philippines remove a rickety naval vessel from a reef, which the Southeast Asian nation uses to assert its territorial claims in the waters.

Philippine coastguard personnel aboard their rigid inflatable boat speeding past a Chinese coastguard ship after conducting a survey at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea on April 23. Photo: AFP

“For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal,” National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya said, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal.

On Tuesday, Beijing repeated its call for the Philippines to remove the ageing ship from the reef.

“The Philippine side has repeatedly made clear promises to tow away the warship illegally ‘stranded’ on the reef,” a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

“Twenty-four years have passed, the Philippine side has not only failed to tow away the warship, but also attempted to repair and reinforce it on a large scale to achieve permanent occupation of the Ren’ai Reef,” they said, using the Chinese term for the Second Thomas Shoal.

“The Chinese side once again urges the Philippines to immediately tow away the ‘stranded’ warship from the Ren’ai Reef and restore the status of no one and no facilities on the reef,” they said.

02:13

Philippines accuses Chinese coastguard of firing water cannons at its vessels in disputed waters

Manila, also issuing a fresh statement on Tuesday, said the deployment of a “Philippine military station in its own areas of jurisdiction is an inherent right of the Philippines and does not violate any laws”.

China claims almost the entire resource-rich waterway, with competing claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Beijing has refused to accept a 2016 international arbitral ruling that invalidated most of Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.

As tensions boiled over the contested waters, lawmaker and outspoken Beijing critic Risa Hontiveros urged the government to ban the state-run China Communications Construction Company, which was blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce.

Washington has also expressed concerns over land reclamation projects in Manila Bay near its embassy due to the involvement of one of the Chinese firm’s subsidiaries.

‘Sea of war’: Philippines mulls raising defence budget over South China Sea

Manila and Beijing have long been locked in a maritime dispute over the South China Sea, and a revelation by an official that Filipino cadets were regularly sent to China for military training has further angered the politicians.

Senator Francis Tolentino called the move “very alarming” and questioned why the Philippines’ top military academy had stopped accepting cadets from the United States since 2008, while it keeps sending local soldiers to the Beijing Military Academy.

Irineo Espino, a senior official at the defence department, said Manila’s military has an exchange programme with China, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

Senator Raffy Tulfo described the initiative a “slap in the face” of Filipinos and told the department to immediately scrap it.

Additional reporting by AFP