My Dear Friend Harry Roque,
Your Honorable Nikki Cheng, President of Philippine Skating Union,
Your Honorable Usec Lorraine Marie T Badoy,
Your Honorable Asec Kelly Ramos,
Your Honorable Asec JV Lim Arcena,
Distinguished Guests,
Dear Media Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.
A heartfelt welcome to all of you for coming to this Christmas Party. And I am glad we can finally meet with our media friends offline.
In 2021, China and the Philippines focused on pandemic control and economic recovery. We have conducted more mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields than ever before, forging a closer Partnership in the New Era.
Chinese vaccines have not only been the first Covid-19 vaccine to arrive in the Philippines but have also become the major source of vaccination in this country. At the time when some developed countries had offered nothing but superficial lip service. The first batch of Chinese vaccines arrived in the Philippines as early as February this year. Since then, China has supplied more than 55 million vaccine doses to the Philippines through commercial procurement and donation. And to add to this, another batch of 2 million doses of Sinovac vaccines, donated by the Chinese government, will arrive in the Philippines next week. I am extremely pleased to see the Philippines has effectively controlled the Covid-19 and we sincerely congratulate the Philippines government and people for their great achievements in fighting the pandemic.
Our practical cooperation bears fruit. At present, our government-to-government projects have stepped into a new stage of harvest while bringing tangible benefits to an increasing number of Filipinos. The Estrella-Pantaleon (E-P) Bridge was completed ahead of schedule in last June. Now, 50,000 vehicles pass by the bridge per day. The Kaliwa Dam Project is under construction, once completed, will help meet the increasing water demand and provide thousands of jobs for Metro Manila. The Chico River Pump Irrigation Project expected to be completed end of this year, will irrigate 8,700 hectares of farmland in the Cagayan and Kalinga provinces and improve crop yield. There are still a host of G-to-G projects in progress, with a total amount of billions of dollars.
The bilateral trade and investment cooperation help the Philippines' economic recovery. In the first ten months of this year, our bilateral trade volume reached USD 66.2 billion with a 37.4% year-on-year increase. From January to July 2021, China's non-financial direct investment in the Philippines hit $110 million USD, with a year-on-year increase of 36.9%. DITO, a flagship telecom project participated by China Telecom has so far launched commercial services in more than 100 cities, and acquired over 4.57 million on-net subscribers. Panhua Group's Integrated Steel Mill project, with an investment of $3.5 billion in phase I, is under construction, once completed, will double the annual output of steel in the Philippines.
Our livelihood projects have reached out and benefited the Filipino people. In light of the pandemic situation, China has extended every help and support to the Philippines to the best of its ability. So far, 10,000 MT of rice donated by China has arrived in the Philippines, benefiting more than a million Filipinos. The Chinese Embassy donated a total of 4,000 tablets to help Philippine students all around the country get better access to distance learning. My embassy in collaboration with our consulates have carried out food assistance projects throughout the country, distributing millions of bags of food, benefiting almost one million families.
People-to-people exchanges have further enhanced mutual trust. This year, we held the Manila Forum for Philippines-China Relations three times, providing a platform to better understand each other. The first Award for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding was given to the awardees for their significant contribution to promoting mutual understanding and friendship. The online Mandarin Training Course was also launched in the Philippines. We have also presented awards and scholarships to help hundreds of teachers and students across this country.
As the relationship between China and the Philippines become increasingly closer, some differences have inevitably appeared, but this does not affect our overall relationship. I always believe that the Philippines’ future will be deeply rooted in its own national development, in a stable and amicable neighborhood, in a peaceful and prosperous Asian region. As close neighbor, China and the Philippines have thousands of reasons to seek peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation. It is normal to have differences even among best friends and neighbors. What matters is how we handle and manage differences in the spirit of seeking common ground while shelving differences. I am fully convinced that as long as we continue to draw wisdom from our millennium friendship, always adhere to the principle of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit, the giant vessel of China-Philippines friendship will stay on an even keel and sail toward a brighter future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China is commemorating the centenary of the Communist Party of China in 2021. Till this year, China has built a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. Also this year, China moves on toward the Second Centenary Goal of building itself into a great modern socialist country in all aspects. A full review of the major achievements and historical experience over the past century has revealed why CPC was successful in the past and how CPC can continue to succeed in the future.
The CPC always represents the fundamental interests of all the people of China. The CPC’s endeavors over the past century have fundamentally transformed the future of the Chinese people, and also produced a profound influence on the course of world history. The CPC is a ruling force that represents the overall interests of the people. It has no special interests of its own, nor has it ever represented the interests of any individual interest group, any power group, or any privileged stratum.
China has summed up its unique experience in realizing its modernization, that is, China's development must be deeply rooted in Chinese society and its national conditions while getting useful experiences from other countries at the same time. Guided by such belief, China has completed a process of industrialization that took developed countries several centuries in the space of mere decades. Till now, we are the world’s second-largest economy, while per capita GDP has topped US$10,000. Over the past four decades, 750 million Chinese have risen above poverty, contributing over 70 percent to the world's poverty reduction.
China has developed a whole-process of people's democracy. It includes electoral democracy and consultative democracy, getting opinions from the broadest masses of the people to reach a consensus. Through this process, procedural democracy and result democracy are realized. Both history and reality have fully proved that the whole process of people's democracy suits well with China’s national conditions. In several surveys conducted by Harvard University, the Chinese government has received more than 90% in people’s satisfaction year after year.
However, there are countries who always want to impose their understanding of democracy on others. The US held the the so-called “Summit for Democracy”, despite widespread opposition from the international community. The US puts together a summit in the name of democracy without consulting the international community or coordinating with the UN or other international bodies. Half of the world’s countries were put into a category of so-called “non-democracies” with the America’s own yardstick. In the name of democracy, the US has launched military interventions in Afghanistan and other countries, leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and displacing tens of millions. Instead of learning lessons and correcting its mistakes, the US has gone even further to instrumentalize and weaponize democracy, by convening this Summit to incite division and confrontation for its geopolitical strategy and gains. What’s the so-called “democracy” of the US all about? The true intention of privatizing, politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing democracy is to push forward its geopolitical agenda.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Just now, we have watched a short video of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Later, we will receive the best wishes from 3 Filipino athletes. 56 days later, the 24th Winter Olympics will kick off, and Beijing will become the world’s first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. We are convinced that, under the guidance of the Olympic spirit and with concerted efforts, we will deliver a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympic Games for the world. I look forward to enjoying the wonderful games with you and wish Micheal Martinez participating in the games great success.
When athletes and sports fans all over the world are looking forward to a wonderful games, we regret to see that individual countries are politicizing the Beijing Winter Olympics. Beijing Winter Olympic Games is not a stage for political posturing and manipulation, but a grand gathering of athletes and fans. Those politicians want to engage in political manipulation or political shows, but they are completely looking for the wrong occasion. They will not have any impact on Beijing's success in hosting the Winter Olympics. The theme motto of the Beijing Winter Olympics i.e. Together for a Shared Future,will spread all over the world and echo in the hearts of people across the globe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you all know, telling the truth is one of the professional requirements for the journalists. When some people observe China through the prism of "Sinophobia", the conclusions they draw could only be distorted. It is our common responsibility to help the Filipino people see a true, multi-dimensional, and panoramic view of China. I sincerely hope that all media friends could adhere to the professional spirit of journalism to hear the two sides of stories. Only by doing that, you can deliver accurate information of China and sustain your reputation as an independent and impartial journalist. Only by doing that, we can nurture more common grounds and narrow the differences between our two countries. Only by doing that, we can let people from our two countries benefit from the friendly exchanges and cooperation.
To conclude, I’d like to extend my appreciation to all media friends for your hard work in the past year. I want to say, thank you for your strong support to the China-Philippines relationship. I look forward to having more constructive interaction.
Merry Christmas! Thank you and Mabuhay!