Marcos accepts Xi invite to visit China in January
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation for him to visit China on a state visit in January, the Office of the Press Secretary said Friday.
The OPS said Marcos will be visiting China from “January 3 to 5/6."
Under Marcos’ predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines pivoted away from its traditional ally, the US, and towards China.
This pivot resulted in what critics said was a foreign policy that was too soft on China, which frequently encroached on waters in the South China Sea that the Philippines claims and calls the West Philippine Sea.
READ: Fishers urge Marcos to assert sea claim vs China in UN assembly
Marcos has pursued a “friend to all, enemy to none” foreign policy, allowing Washington to re-engage with Manila despite their “rocky past.”
But this same policy has allowed Marcos to remain friendly with China, which Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in July they “highly appreciate.”
Marcos has enjoyed close ties with China, owing largely to his father’s establishment of diplomatic relations with the country in 1975. — Xave Gregorio with reports from The STAR/Alexis Romero
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