MANILA BULLETIN: PRES. BENIGNO AQUINO III LEAVES TUESDAY FOR HIS 1st STATE VISIT TO THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
MANILA, AUGUST 30, 2011 (MANILA BULLETIN) President Benigno S. Aquino III is leaving today, August 30, 2011, for his first State Visit to the People's Republic of China.
It will be his 10th foreign trip since he assumed the Presidency on June 30, 2010.
He will return to Manila on September 3, 2011. President Aquino is scheduled to meet with Chinese President H.E. Hu Jintao, who invited the Philippine leader during their meeting in last year's Leaders' Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The President will also meet with Officials and Members of the National People's Congress and Chinese businessmen and the Filipino communities in China. He is scheduled to visit three key Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen.
It will be a nostalgic trip for President Aquino to the Hongjian Park in Fujian province where a Chinese-Philippine memorial is dedicated to his mother, former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. The late President went to Fujian, China, in April 14, 1988, to trace her family's ancestral roots. Don Jose C. Cojuangco, her grandfather, was the son of a Chinese immigrant from Fujian. She was later adopted as "daughter of Hongjian."
The Philippines and China share a long-standing friendship and cooperation in the areas of economics, trade, culture, and education since the two countries forged diplomatic ties on June 9, 1975. The ties have since expanded to include cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, and transportation. There have been also cultural and people-to-people exchanges in tourism, media and sports.
The agreement on tourism is expected to draw millions of Chinese tourists by 2016. There will be talks on how to strengthen cooperation in judicial and legal matters.
The Spratlys may be on the agenda as the two Asian leaders had earlier expressed openness to discussing the issue, in a spirit of seeking a settlement, maintaining peace and stability in the region, exploring and developing resources.
The significance of President Aquino's trip to China may be summed up in the words of the Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao, who said that the State Visit "will highlight the wonderful relations between the two countries in many realms: In political confidence and trust, economic cooperation, trade, and people to people exchanges."
We wish President Benigno S. Aquino III and his Delegation bon voyage on their State Visit to the People's Republic of China. We wish them all the best and success in all their endeavors. Mabuhay!
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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