Mutual development

I went up to Heaven, and it was in China.

This was some years ago, when I climbed the last several hundred steps to a mountaintop traditional folk village in northeastern China, and was greeted with a huge streamer that declared, in English and Chinese characters: “Welcome to Heaven.”

A Chinese guide told me it was the name of the village, but I suspect the Chinese name means something slightly different, with the English name given to spice up the place as a destination for foreign visitors.

Whatever the name, the village had picture-postcard charm. Like many other rural communities across China, traditional architecture and much of the lifestyle in Heaven have been preserved.

From the town at the foot of the mountain (no, it wasn’t called Hell) where the climate was mild during my visit, the temperature near the top plunged below zero. So visitors who wanted to reach the top after disembarking from a cable car were advised to bring warm clothing and climb slowly to acclimatize the lungs to the thin air.

At the top of what I called the Stairway to Heaven, weary climbers could enjoy the sweetest sweet potato in the world, boiled in carts along the narrow street, and wash it down with tea, western soft drinks, or Tsingtao, the beer developed by Germans when they occupied the Chinese port city of Qingdao during the war.

Across much of China there is something unique in almost every village for visitors to see. Last year China was the fourth most visited country after France, the United States and Spain, drawing 55.7 million foreign tourists.

That was down by 3.5 percent from the 57.7 million in 2012 – not a good sign for a country that is trying to boost tourism as its manufacturing strength is weakened by rising production costs, global economic woes and, to a certain extent, by simmering territorial feuds.

Chinese officials say they value friendly ties with the world, particularly their neighbors. And despite maritime disputes, they are hoping to improve frayed relations with the Philippines.

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Official records show that 996,700 Filipinos visited China last year – up by 3.61 percent from 2012 – making the Philippines the eighth largest source of tourist arrivals for that country after South Korea, Japan, Russia, the US, Vietnam, Malaysia and Mongolia.

Chinese visitors, meanwhile, constituted the fourth largest group of tourists in the Philippines in the first eight months of 2014, with 308,393 accounting for 9.44 percent of the total 3.267 million arrivals. South Koreans remained the largest group, followed by the Americans and Japanese.

For this fourth quarter, Chinese arrivals have slowed to a trickle after Beijing imposed a travel ban to the Philippines ostensibly amid security threats to its citizens. This was after a group linked to wacko publicity hound Ely Pamatong threatened to bomb the Chinese embassy and attack other Chinese targets.

A recent report said that after the travel ban was imposed in September, 150 chartered flights from China, booked through December and with a potential 24,000 passengers were canceled.

Tourism, of course, is not the only aspect of bilateral ties affected by maritime feuds. The Chinese insist that they are no neighborhood bullies and they have a stake in seeing a stable, prosperous region.

“The Philippines is the closest neighbor of China,” Yuan Zhibing told STAR editors during a visit to our office last week. “The Chinese people have a natural affinity with the Filipino people.”

Yuan is the acting deputy director general of the International Department Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He was in Manila for the first time last week to meet with officials of various political parties, after attending the 50th anniversary celebration of the Golkar party in Indonesia.

“If we have a very stable relationship with our neighbors, our development will be very stable as well,” Yuan told us through an interpreter. “We cannot base our foreign policy on strong countries bullying weaker countries.”

Only the development of neighboring countries can sustain China’s development, he said.

Yuan lamented that Filipinos tend to see only China’s growing strength and economic power without seeing the “unprecedented” challenges and risks faced by the world’s second largest economy.

Other Chinese officials have told me the same thing, pointing out that they still have a large segment of their population living in extreme poverty.

They also deny – based on hard assessment of facts and trends rather than any pretense at humility – that the Chinese economy will “very soon” overtake the United States. Yuan thinks this could happen only in 50 years.

Compared to the US, Yuan says, Chinese per capita GDP is still “very low” and their national competitiveness is about 30 years behind that of the Americans.

They also realize – as Yuan acknowledged – that their export-dependent development model “is not sustainable.”

Among their new thrusts for continued economic growth is tourism, whose strength is heavily dependent on a peaceful, stable environment and good relations with the world.

Those good relations are being shaken these days by China’s assertive reclamation activities in disputed waters such as those within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Beijing, for its part, is chafing over the arbitration case we have brought before a United Nations tribunal to define our maritime entitlements under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Chinese are hoping for “mutual development” with its neighbors, and for ties to improve even with unresolved territorial disputes.

This may be difficult for anyone who looks at a map and questions the basis for any country around the South China Sea laying claim to nearly the entire area.

Some Chinese officials have told me that territorial issues have become a nationalist cause in their country, leaving Beijing with little wiggle room to soften its position. Manila may have to devise an innovative approach to nudge Beijing in this direction without making it lose face before its people.

“We have a thousand reasons to develop our relations better. We do not have a single reason to worsen our relations,” Yuan told us.

Doubters may scoff that action speaks louder than words, and the situation in the West Philippine Sea is not encouraging. But positive action can spring from positive words.

People-to-people exchanges also go a long way in improving bilateral relations, with every tourist turning into a goodwill ambassador. A travel ban does not help.