The Philippines and China discussed setting up a “two-track” system that would allow them to cooperate in some areas while separately handling “contentious issues” such as their South China Sea territorial dispute, a Manila envoy said yesterday.
Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos and former Philippine interior secretary Rafael Alunan discussed the proposal at meetings with Chinese representatives in Hong Kong on a trip aimed at improving relations.
Ramos, a longtime advocate of closer ties, said the talks were “very hospitable ... very encouraging, in the sense that we have a common interest” in such goals as fighting global warming.
They met with Fu Ying (傅瑩), head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Congress.
Alunan said both sides discussed “encouraging track two or think tank exchanges ... where we will be discussing contentious issues.”
“That would relieve us [of] the burden of discussing contentious issues because we have another group doing that while we explore ways and means on how to move our relations forward,” he said.
He did not say which think tanks would be involved in these issues, apparently referring to the two countries’ territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
When asked if they discussed a UN-backed tribunal’s ruling last month that Beijing’s claims over most of the South China Sea were invalid, Ramos said: “We never mentioned that.”
The decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague was widely seen as a victory for the Philippines which has challenged China’s claims to the vital waterway.
China refused to recognize the decision and had demanded that the Philippines disregard it in future talks. The Philippines rejected this.
Both Ramos and Alunan said that they were only informal envoys and that further formal talks would be handled by other parties.
Ramos said they also “talked about fishing,” referring to China driving away Philippine fishermen from a shoal it occupied in 2012 after a standoff with Philippine authorities.
The shoal is 230km off the main Philippine island of Luzon and 650km from Hainan Island, the nearest major Chinese landmass.
Ramos said he discussed restoring the previous situation where Chinese, and even Vietnamese fishermen freely plied their trade in the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), which is also claimed by Taiwan.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was