Solon nixes boycott, seeks more trade with China

If you can’t beat them, do more business with them.

Sen. Ralph Recto on Tuesday cautioned that instead of heeding calls to boycott ‘Made in China’ products, the country should instead boost trade and investments with Beijing.

“The right response is to increase our trade and investments with China and perhaps, maybe with the right growth formula, we can get even economically years from now,” he said in a statement.

Recto noted that China remains the country’s “biggest trading neighbor.” Last year, he said the Philippines imported $7 billion worth of products from China and exported some $6 billion goods.

Trade imbalance

He said the Philippines should now work to close the $900 million trade imbalance with China. He said doing so would be a “big economic victory more meaningful than trying to sink one of their vessels.”

Recto said the country should not be “boycott-happy” in the wake of China’s purported intrusions into the group of islands in the West Philippine Sea, which are also claimed in part by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan.

He said the Philippines should “act accordingly” given its status as among “the emerging economies and touted by respected global bodies to be in the Top 25 counties with strong economies by 2025.”

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda earlier called for a boycott of China-made products in response to China’s recent behavior in the disputed territory.

Saber-rattling

“The Spratlys’ question should be settled peacefully,” Recto said. “You can’t be saber-rattling with China… We should not only engage China diplomatically but also through business.”

But another solon wants the Philippine government to resort to public diplomacy to settle its dispute with China.

Rep. Roilo Golez, vice chair of the House committee on national security and defense, said that while diplomats tackle the issue using conventional laws, Filipinos must exercise public diplomacy which would help show “that there’s a bully in the neighborhood who is misbehaving.”

A boycott of China-made products, voicing opinions, making speeches and talking in local and international forums about the ongoing issue are components of public diplomacy intended to hit where China will hurt the most, said Golez in a Church-hosted forum in Manila on Tuesday.

“While China is emerging as a powerful country, they are very sensitive about their international image and this is where we can hurt them the most… we can focus our attacks by portraying them as a bully who is not behaving as a responsible powerful country,” said Golez.

A million needles

“Public diplomacy is the exercise of the use of a million needles coming from those affected by China’s aggressive behavior to prick China,” added Golez, a former national security adviser.

He said that public diplomacy, separate from state diplomacy being undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs, could be initiated through making speeches that can be heard and quoted in international forums and media.

This move could put China under international spotlight amid frequent incidents of supposed intrusion of its naval vessels and planes into the territories claimed by the Philippines and other smaller claimants.

While initially distancing himself from Salceda’s boycott call, Golez later said such tack could be a “very important component” of public diplomacy.

Challenge of duty

Salceda explained that such individual action was well within the domain of an empowered people “rising up to the challenge of duty.”

“I’m not asking you to throw away things made from China you already have but to temporarily stop buying them… no freedom is ever won without sacrifice,” Salceda said on Tuesday.

China was more at a losing end if the Philippines would pullout its $5 billion worth of investments from the country, Salceda added.

“I am not against the Chinese people, what I am against is its unfriendly policy to the Philippines,” he said, adding that while others scoffed at his initiative as ridiculous, it was more ridiculous to fall on one’s knees to China. With a report from Jocelyn R. Uy