Philippine President Visits China Seeking Stability

Philippine President Benigno Aquino arrived in Beijing on Tuesday on his first state Visit to China. He’s seeking to smooth tensions over a number of disputes, as well as seal deals worth billions of dollars.

On Thursday the two countries issued a joint agreement. Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported, “Both sides agreed to further expand the volume of bilateral trade and…set a target of 60-billion U.S. dollars in total two-way trade by 2016.”

Bilateral relations between the Philippines and the Chinese regime have soured recently after the Chinese regime executed three Filipinos convicted of drug smuggling in March. Other Philippine citizens remain imprisoned in China. And tensions have also simmered over the South China Sea, where the Chinese regime has sought to claim a large part of the territory.

The Philippines' oil and gas resources are attractive to resource-hungry China. Manila said in early August that Chinese firms, including China's top offshore oil producer, were interested in investing in 15 oil and gas exploration contracts worth at least 7.5-billion U.S. dollars.