China says no point in showing proof of Ayungin Shoal deal if Marcos already rescinded it

China has responded to the statement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that there was no agreement between Manila and Beijing to remove the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal.

On Wednesday, the President even went as far saying that even if there was an agreement, he was rescinding it.

CNN Philippines spoke to some diplomatic sources from China and asked if they are willing to show proof of the said promise.

“What’s the point [of us doing] that if any agreement will be rescinded,” a diplomatic source said.

China maintained that the Philippine government committed to remove the World War II-era ship from Ayungin Shoal.

“Over this matter, China had repeatedly made representations to the Philippines and renewed the same demand,” according to a white position paper published by China in 2016 on settling issues in the South China Sea.

China said they made another representation in 2003 with then acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Franklin Ebdalin, who gave assurance that the Philippines will not construct facilities on Ayungin Shoal.

The years mentioned by China covered the terms of former presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Estrada’s son, Senator JV Ejercito, denied that his father entered into such an agreement.

“I cannot recall of such a commitment from the Philippine Government to remove the Sierra Madre. That area was peaceful and supply of food and supplies to the Marines until recently was smooth. There is nothing to rescind because there is no agreement in the first place,” Ejercito told reporters in a statement.

One Beijing diplomat added that some of the discussions on Ayungin Shoal were a “gentlemen’s agreement” and internal understanding.

“Facts are proven that the gentlemen's agreement maintained stability in Ren ’ai Reef (Ayungin Shoal),” the diplomat said.

China however laments that the Philippine side recently started to ignore these agreements.

“This has raised concern for the Chinese people,” the diplomat said.

“Warning signals have been sent by the Chinese side, but the Philippines disregarded our warnings,” the source added.

“The dishonesty on the commitment precedes China’s reactions,” a Beijing diplomat added.

How U.S. and China Are Breaking Up, in Charts
Americans keep buying less from China, dropping its share of imports to a 20-year low

A deepening confrontation between the U.S. and China is eroding trade ties between the world’s two largest economies, with goods from China accounting for the smallest percentage of U.S. imports in 20 years.
 
Instead, buyers are turning to Mexico, Europe and other parts of Asia for wares ranging from computer chips and smartphones to clothing, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of trade data released this week by the Census Bureau.
 
China accounted for 13.3% of U.S. goods imports during the first six months of this year, below a peak of 21.6% for all of 2017. The current level is the lowest since 12.1% for the year in 2003, two years after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

“It’s now become clear to companies that the conflict on trade and technology and other things between the United States and China is not going to go away,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who follows U.S.-China trade. “They have begun to try to figure out ways to de-risk.”

One factor has been a shift of production to other Asian nations, namely in Southeast Asia and India. Starting in early 2019, China’s share of U.S. imports fell below the total share from a basket of 25 other Asian nations including India, Thailand and Vietnam. That group of nations accounted for 24.6% of U.S. imports in the 12 months ending in June, compared with 14.9% for China, according to census data.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s share of U.S. imports matched China’s in June. The free-trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada has made Mexico a strong contender against China and other Asian nations as a supply base to the U.S. A move toward shorter supply chains in the post-Covid era adds to the advantage of Mexico and Canada.  

When the dollar values of exports and imports are combined, Mexico is now the U.S.’s No. 1 trading partner, followed by Canada, pushing China to third place. The shift reflects a recent decline in the share of U.S. exports to China, combined with a longer-term decline in China’s share of U.S. imports. China accounted for 10.9% of U.S. total trade during the first half of 2023. Mexico tops at 15.7%, with Canada close behind at 15.4%.

The 24 weekly flights are still a fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-pandemic.

United said on Friday it will expand flights between the two countries under the agreement, resuming flights to Beijing and reintroducing its daily service to Shanghai.

Joe Biden’s China strategy is not working
Supply chains are becoming more tangled and opaque

Dig deeper, though, and you find that America’s reliance on China remains intact. America may be redirecting its demand from China to other countries. But production in those places now relies more on Chinese inputs than ever. As South-East Asia’s exports to America have risen, for instance, its imports of intermediate inputs from China have exploded. China’s exports of car parts to Mexico, another country that has benefited from American de-risking, have doubled over the past five years. Research published by the imf finds that even in advanced-manufacturing sectors, where America is keenest to shift away from China, the countries that have made most inroads into the American market are those with the closest industrial links to China. Supply chains have become more complex, and trade has become more expensive. But China’s dominance is undiminished.

What is going on? In the most egregious cases, Chinese goods are simply being repackaged and sent via third countries to America. At the end of 2022, America’s Department of Commerce found that four major solar suppliers based in South-East Asia were doing such minor processing of otherwise Chinese products that they were, in effect, circumventing tariffs on Chinese goods. In other areas, such as rare-earth metals, China continues to provide inputs that are hard to replace.

More often, though, the mechanism is benign. Free markets are simply adapting to find the cheapest way to supply goods to consumers. And in many cases China, with its vast workforce and efficient logistics, remains the cheapest supplier. America’s new rules have the power to redirect its own trade with China. But they cannot rid the entire supply chain of Chinese influence.

Much of the decoupling, then, is phoney. Worse, from Mr Biden’s perspective, his approach is also deepening the economic links between China and other exporting countries. In so doing, it perversely pits their interests against America’s. Even where governments are worried about the growing assertiveness of China, their commercial relationships with the biggest economy in Asia are deepening. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a trade deal signed in November 2020 by many South-East Asian countries and China, creates a sort of single market in precisely the intermediate goods in which trade has boomed in recent years.

@Schuldensuehner

OUCH! FDI in #China slumped to the lowest level since at least 1998.

China driving Marcos deeper into American arms
Beijing’s toughening stance on South China Sea disputes is unifying Filipino political elite on need for stronger US defense cooperation

The recently enhanced agreement gives US troops rotational access to Philippine bases, including strategic facilities situated close to Taiwan. Speculation has grown in recent months that the US may eventually seek to preposition weapons pointed toward China on Philippine soil.
 
Confronting growing harassment by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, top senators and political figures in the Philippines are egging on Marcos to adopt even tougher measures vis-a-vis Beijing. As a result, the notoriously conflict-averse Filipino leader is being forced to harden his line towards China.

Go, who is of Chinese-Filipino descent, repeatedly accompanied Duterte during trips to Beijing in order to elevate bilateral strategic ties. But now, even this top advocate of Philippine-China relations has begun adopting a more critical stance, at least in public.
Other key Duterte allies have adopted similar lines. Senator Francis Tolentino, former political affairs secretary under Duterte, has been a leading advocate of stronger defense ties with Western allies.
 
Earlier this year, he even called for a “new quadrilateral” security alliance with Australia, Japan and the US to counter China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

An authoritative survey released earlier this year showed that more than eight out of 10 Filipinos want the government to seek US assistance to better defend the Philippines’ position in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, a more recent survey by the New York-based Eurasia Group consultancy showed that 69.8% of respondents held negative views of China.

@AsiaNews_FR
 
#Chine Le parking de l'aéroport de Sanhe dans la ville de Yueyang, dans la province du Hunan (centre du pays), interdit les voitures #Tesla, pour des raisons de sécurités  (craintes d'espionnage)  
@shanghaidaily