Taipans Gokongwei, Lucio Tan, Carlos Chan, Fred Yao promote ties with China

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.

— Will Durant

SHANGHAI — As good, if not more enthusiastic, in promoting international relations between nations than politicians and even diplomats are private sector leaders. They help out more with quiet actions than with words.

In Shanghai, Oishi/Liwayway taipan and Philippine special envoy Carlos Chan has leveraged his phenomenally successful China investments into support for the Philippine Consulate in that megapolis, support for the Philippine Pavilion at the ongoing World Expo and promotion of Philippine tourism.

Taipan John Gokongwei, Jr. is expanding his Cebu Pacific Air flights to different parts of China with the Sept. 5 inauguration of direct flights to the ancient imperial capital of Beijing, and his Gokongwei Brothers Foundation sends many Philippine scholars to study Mandarin and Chinese culture this year at Shanghai’s Fudan University as well as three years ago at Beijing Language & Culture University. His younger brother James Go’s brilliant Harvard-educated son is in charge of JG Summit investments in China.  

Century Properties boss Joey Antonio is also special envoy helping Philippine-China ties, the Zobel Ayala family is making huge real estate investments in booming Tianjin City with Singaporean partners.

Also helping Philippine-China ties is Zest Air, Zesto juice and Philippine Business Bank taipan Alfredo “Fred” Yao, who is rumored to be the possible next Philippine Ambassador to Beijing after having served as special Philippine envoy promoting more China tourist arrivals.

Quietly supporting mutually beneficial Philippine ties with the world’s fastest-growing economy of China include taipans Henry Sy of SM Group and George S.K. Ty of Metrobank. The Tan family of Jollibee is also increasing its presence all over China.

This writer is in Shanghai this long weekend with 35 other young Filipino Chinese entrepreneurs of the Anvil Business Club to tour the World Expo, as well as for a series of meetings with China’s young entrepreneurs, sincerely hoping that in our own small ways we can help project a better Philippine image here in the fastest-growing major economy on earth.

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Last week even as the hullabaloo about the Manila hostage crisis still reverberated in Philippine politics, business taipan Lucio Tan had brought honor to the Philippines and quietly exerted his personal brand of diplomacy to promote recently ruffled Philippine-China friendship.

Sources told The Philippine STAR: “Occasional problems and even misunderstandings like the Manila hostage crisis are natural between friends, but China still values the over 1,000 years of friendship with the Philippines which predates even the arrival of the Western colonizers to Asia.”

On Sept. 2 at 4 p.m. in formal rites, the 76-year-old business leader and Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) Honorary Chairman Lucio C. Tan was conferred the title of Ming-yi Jiao-xou (or Honorary Professor) by the prestigious Jilin University in Changchun City of northeastern China. Three years ago, Tan also received a similar “Honorary Professor” title from Beijing University in recognition of his philanthropy and diverse business ventures.

Jilin University is one of Asia’s largest, with eight campuses totaling 7,000 hectares of lands and a library with over 5.26 million books. Among Jilin University’s many outstanding graduates include the present China Ambassador to Manila Liu Jianchao. The 46-year-old Chinese ambassador went for further studies in Britain and speaks English with an Oxford accent, because he studied International Relations at Oxford University.

Declining to comment on the politics of the recent tragedy that befell Hong Kong tourists in Manila, Tan showed that private sector initiatives by the Philippines’ ethnic Chinese minority can help strengthen diplomatic, cultural and economic relations between the Philippines and China.

During the ceremony, Lucio Tan told Jilin University officials that he plans to undertake academic exchange visits between that university and the Philippines’ University of the East (UE), as well as sponsoring academic exchange visits between professors of both universities to promote better bilateral understanding.

As part of his efforts to boost mutually beneficial Philippine-China economic partnership in this era when all nations like the US and our ASEAN neighbors are assiduously wooing China business, Lucio Tan invited 65 business tycoons and entrepreneurs of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) to join the trip from Sept. 1 to 4. The trip coincided with the Northeast China Trade Expo hosted by Changchun City. Among the business tycoons in the delegation included FFCCCII honorary presidents Jimmy Tang, John Tan, Robin Sy, Vicente Yu and the incumbent FFCCCII president Alfonso Uy.

On Sept. 1, the Philippine delegation flew via Philippine Airlines from Manila to Shanghai in three hours, then the delegation split into two groups for two flights via China Southern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines for another two-hour flight to the booming industrial city of Changchun in Jilin province, which borders Russia and North Korea. They were all billeted at the deluxe Jin-An Hotel.

On their flight back to Manila via Shanghai on Sept. 4, the Philippine delegation was coincidentally on the same plane as JG Summit Holdings, Inc. founder John Gokongwei, Jr. who was seated beside FFCCCII vice-president Henry Lim Bon Liong.

Among those who assisted in Lucio Tan’s visit to Jilin University were Henry Lim Bon Liong and his friend Fu Huang Group Chairman Liu Ye of Jilin province. When Lucio Tan heard that the agro-industrial tycoon Liu Ye was a friend of Thai billionaire and Charoen Pokphand Group chairman Dhanin Chearavanont (Chinese name “Xie Guo-Min” in Mandarin), Tan remarked: “Xie Guo-Min is my idol and a good friend, he’s a very good businessman.” Chearavanont and CP Group are among the world’s largest agro-industrial conglomerates and top investors all over China and Asia.

Henry Lim Bon Liong told the STAR: “Many countries, including the United States and our ASEAN neighbors, are strengthening their economic exchanges with China since this is the new ultimate superpower which has just dislodged Japan as the world’s No. 2 largest economy. We in the private sector should dynamically support the Philippine government’s diplomacy with our own business and cultural exchanges so that the Philippines can also benefit from this historic phenomenon. Visionary business leaders like Dr. Lucio Tan are leading the way with their own quiet diplomacy efforts, which we should all emulate.”

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