Common sense diplomacy with China

Finally! Someone in government has put on the thinking cap and pushed for a practical solution that will surely be beneficial for the Philippines and could be the beginning of better relations with China.

The Philippine government announced late last week that Chinese citizens, particularly tourists and businesspeople, can now enter the Philippines visa free, provided they are traveling only for tourism or business purposes, that they have confirmed hotel bookings and a return ticket to port of origin.

The visa-free policy is clearly designed to once again open doors and attract Chinese tourists to the Philippines, as our tourism revenues and targets continue to struggle from the absence of Chinese visitors.

From what I gathered online, in 2019, Chinese visitors totaled somewhere between 1.7 million to 1.9 million in one year. In terms of revenues, reports claim that the Chinese visitors spent $2.3 billion during their accumulated stay in the country.

All that came to an abrupt halt because of the COVID pandemic, the controversy over where COVID came from, the country’s emergency measures to ban Chinese tourists in the Philippines in order to “control” the spread of COVID. Ironically, it was China that provided the Philippines access to the Chinese-made Sinovac after western countries applied the “us first” policy for their vaccines.

As the COVID pandemic died down, the Philippines found itself having to choose where her loyalties lie – side with the US in its pissing contest against China or remain friendly with China.

Marcos Jr. claimed to be independently neutral but actually chose Boss Trump, allowing a stronger presence of US military forces and hardware. The Philippines ended up acknowledging Taiwan in spite of our “One-China Policy.”

Those unfortunate events ultimately led to the renaming of the China sea into the West Philippine Sea, the WPS water cannon conflict, the visa restrictions on Chinese citizens, as well as the ongoing acoustic war of the Coast Guard and the Chinese embassy.

What many people did not talk about is that in 2022, only 39,627 Chinese visitors arrived. In 2023, 263,836 (or 313,856 per the DOT) arrived in the Philippines. In 2024, the DOT recorded 312,000 to 313,000 Chinese visitors in the Philippines. We lost 1,200,000 visitors from China while losing $1 billion to $1.5 billion annually.

The Philippines failed to recover in tourism, unlike other countries. A friend told me that a Philippine Statistics Authority report indicated that approved investments from China totaled P106.41 billion from 2019 to 2021.

Unfortunately, investments dipped or fell to P10.63 billion during 2022 to 2024, representing a 90 percent decline. Meanwhile, FDI or Foreign Direct Investment from China amounted to $350 million from 2019 to 2021 but dropped to $40.20 million between 2022 to 2024.

While the Philippines was losing out on the tourism and economic front from China, the rest of our neighbors quietly pivoted from antagonism to diplomacy. They learned early on that there was more to be gained in working with China than squabbling with them.

What’s ironic is that in spite of many suggestions from academicians, experts on Philippines-China studies and retired diplomats, the Philippine government seemed deaf or indifferent to recommendations for a dialogue between officials and representatives.

What has been noticed by many is that the Marcos Jr. government seems to support or tolerate acoustic wars with their critics using combative and acerbic statements. Beginning with spokesperson Claire Castro, it is now manifesting with Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela.

Commodore Tarriela has clearly angered Chinese officials for actively criticizing and attacking China and its operatives in the West Philippine Sea. But his recent disrespect of Xi Jinping – president of the People’s Republic of China – may end up being more than he bargained for.

In his social media post, Commodore Tarriela shared a talk he was invited to give and, as usual, he explained and criticized China’s activities in the WPS.

Tarriela even shared images/slides to support his presentation, but one slide was a three-panel caricature of Xi Jinping that portrayed Xi as a monster, a bully and a tyrant.

As a communicator and Filipino, I understand the style, drama and perhaps intention of “poking fun.” But Tarriela’s lack of judgment is that he presented himself in uniform with the official title of spokesman of the Philippine Coast Guard publicly maligning or insulting a head of state.

Unlike Filipinos who take insults to Jesus Christ and presidents in stride, Chinese folks don’t take kindly to people attacking “Their Leader” or interfering with their affairs.

Not so long ago, recently elected and popular Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi declared that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could be considered a “survival threatening situation” for Japan, potentially justifying Japanese military action.

China viewed the statement as interference in China’s affairs and almost immediately retaliated with commercial boycotts and restricting travel to Japan. While Takaichi stood her ground, many Japanese businesses took the hit and suffered financially.

In May of this year, the Philippines will host the World Tourism Forum and in November, the Philippines hosts the ASEAN Summit. All the saber-rattling and huffing and puffing between China and the Philippines may be understandable, but it is also unproductive.

The United States Navy has a popular motto that goes: “Loose lips sink ships.” Given how the Philippines is now trying to resuscitate Philippine-Chinese tourism while showing capable leadership in the ASEAN region, let diplomats, business leaders and economists lead the way and do the talking.