Be like monkeys.
That’s Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua’s exhortation to his guests at a reception at the Chinese Embassy Wednesday ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year.
But he was not mocking his guests. He was using the description of the monkey in the Chinese zodiac to point out how the Philippines and China should go about handling their affairs, including their territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Among Zhao’s guests was Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who had been skipping Chinese Lunar New Year receptions at the Chinese Embassy since the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings against China in the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to resolve the two countries’ dispute in the South China Sea in January 2013.
Year of the Monkey
With his wife, Gretchen, Del Rosario joined other diplomats and businessmen in toasting the Year of the Monkey.
US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, whose country is also at odds with China over Beijing’s claim to almost the whole 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea, also attended the reception.
“In the Chinese zodiac, the monkey symbolizes vitality, flexibility and intelligence. If you use your intelligence, show some flexibility, you will have a vigorous Chinese New Year,” Zhao said.
“The same goes for the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines,” he said.
Without mentioning the South China Sea dispute, Zhao acknowledged that the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have run into “challenges and difficulties.”
“Despite the challenges and difficulties, our overall relations remained stable and developing in 2015,” Zhao said, noting that the two countries are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
He cited the visit of China’s President Xi Jinping to the Philippines to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders’ Meeting in Manila last November.
China, he said, has also remained one of the top trading partners of the Philippines, with the trade volume in the first 11 months of 2015 rising by 2.3 percent, amounting to $41.46 billion.
About 400,000 Chinese tourists traveled to the Philippines last year, Zhao said.
“As Confucius said: ‘At the age of 40, one should no longer be confused.’ China and the Philippines should not be confused by the current and temporary difficulties,” he said.
Int’l arbitration
Zhao reiterated that China stays committed to settling the South China Sea dispute “through dialogue and negotiation.”
The Philippines, however, has chosen to resolve the dispute through international arbitration, a process rejected by China, which insists it has “undisputed sovereignty” over the South China Sea, including waters close to the shores of its smaller neighbors in the region.
The UN tribunal has wrapped up the case and is expected to hand down a ruling by June.
Besides the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan have conflicting claims in the South China Sea, which is crisscrossed by vital sea-lanes through which $5 trillion in global trade every year and where islets, reefs and atolls are believed to be sitting atop vast energy reserves.