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| Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian on Friday said Beijing would continue to engage with Manila in joint COVID-19 prevention and control and exchange experiences on resumption of work and production. (Photo by=Inquirer PH) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana]Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian on Friday said Manila and Beijing should focus more on joint development and cooperation instead of their conflicting South China Sea claims that he described as only “a small part” of the relations between the two countries.
“The South China Sea issue is only a small part of China-Philippines relations, or as Foreign Secretary [Teodoro] Locsin put it just a little pebble on the avenue leading to our mutually beneficial economic progress. We mustn’t stumble over the little pebble,” Huang said in an online forum of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding. Huang said both countries have taken the same approach since then President Corazon Aquino visited China in April 1988 and then Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping said that both countries could put aside disputes about the South China Sea and instead look at joint development.
Despite increasing criticism from the United States and its allies over Chinese maritime claims, Huang said all countries enjoy freedom of navigation in the South China Sea “in accordance with international law.” The former secretary said his stand on the West Philippine Sea had always been constant. He said his campaign had been about fishermen driven away from their fishing grounds by the Chinese, the coral reef systems that were destroyed in the reclamation.
