Mike de Leon drops new docu, this time on China and its “love affair” with the Philippines

Chinese firms could gain footholds at both Subic and Clark in the Philippines

Chinese businesses are still in the running to take over a Subic Bay shipyard and could soon also control nearly 2 square miles of what was once America’s largest air base in the Philippines, according to local media reports.

Philippines Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the government would not, and could not, block Chinese offers to buy Subic Bay shipbuilder Hanjin Philippines, which has defaulted on $1.3 billion in loans, according to an April 25 Reuters news agency report.

From Stars and Stripes.

UPDATE: Compare and Contrast, people.

Trump administration forces China to sell the Port of Long Beach

Oh: PT&T pairs up with Chinese firm for national wifi network

The Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) will put up a national wi-fi service with a Chinese partner.

In a disclosure on Monday, the listed telecommunications firm said its chairman Salvador Zamora II signed a $500-million deal with China's CITIC Networks Co. Ltd. to roll out wi-fi internet connection, digital television, and satellite network services covering the whole country.

Zamora through his holding company Tranzen Group, Inc. signed the memorandum of understanding with Citic's Luo Ning last month in Beijing, forming part of the over $12-billion business deals fetched during President Rodrigo Duterte's latest visit to the Mainland.

Can we trust China? I guess we can experience what Venezuela experienced if China decides to flip the switch and shut down the entire country?

FORBES: Philippines Can Escape From China -- There's Still Time

The Philippines is already caught in China’s web, but there’s still the time and a way to escape from it.

The time is now that its economy isn’t heavily dependent on China. And the way is by saying “no” to Chinese investments that could leave the country heavily indebted to Beijing...

It can say “no” to Chinese investment projects that promote China’s ambitions rather than Philippines priorities.

Why? For a simple reason: the Philippines economy doesn’t depend heavily on China, as other Asian economies do (e.g., the Malaysian economy).

China isn’t the top direct investor in the Philippines --  Japan, US, and Singapore are.
China isn’t the top export market for the Philippines either. Last year, America was the top export market, at 10.6 billion (15.6% of total Filipino exports), followed by Hong Kong ($9.6 billion (14.2%), and Japan $9.5 billion (14%). China occupied the fourth position($8.7 billion (12.9%).

That’s in sharp contrast with Malaysia, where China is the largest export market for Malaysia ($42.5B), followed by Singapore (35.7B), and the US ($33.1B).

This means that Beijing doesn’t have leverage against any “irrational” behavior by the Philippines, like canceling Chinese projects, as it has over Malaysia.

By coincidence, Malaysia’s exports dropped unexpectedly followed a decision of the country’s newly elected leadership to cancel certain Chinese projects.

If only there's some way we can check Duterte. Article here.