Xi Jinping – ellen tordesillas

Aside from loans, what support can Xi Jinping give Duterte?

Published by Ellen on May 18, 2018

Pres. Duterte and Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping in Beijing, Oct. 2016.

President Duterte takes pride in his being smart in matters of geopolitics. After all, as he more than once told his captive audience, he is a graduate of Foreign Service at the Lyceum University.

Recently, however, he revised it to just say he took up foreign service after he was exposed not to be in the list of those who graduated from Lyceum with a degree in foreign service.

Last Tuesday he again demonstrated his expertise in geopolitics belittling the United States for having “lost its will to fight.”

Duterte a Foreign Service graduate?

Published by Ellen on October 27, 2016

Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, welcomed by honor guards upon his arrival at the Prime Minister’s Office in Japan Oct.26. Malacanang photo by Albert Alcain.

Do you know that President Rodrigo Duterte is a Foreign Service graduate?

That what he said in his press conference with the foreign correspondents in China last Oct. 19.

He boasted: “Now that I am the President, by the grace of God, I read a lot; I’m a lawyer and I studied geopolitics and all, and also I am a graduate of the Foreign Service so I get to know how to balance this contending (forces).”

Being a “foreign service graduate” is quite a big leap from just having taken up foreign service which was what he said last Aug. 21, in a press conference in Davao City.

Duterte allows Xi to take lead on South China Sea issue

Published by Ellen on October 20, 2016

Pres. Duterte being interviewed by Beijing-based media upon arrival in China. Malacanang photo by King Rodriguez.

By CHARMAINE DEOGRACIAS, VERA Files

President Rodrigo Duterte will not initiate and will instead let Chinese President Xi Jinping to take the lead on whether the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration will be discussed in their meeting today.

In a press conference in Wednesday night with Beijing-based media, on the eve of his meeting with Xi, Duterte said, “As a friend, and I would say this now, if he (Xi) mentions it in passing I will just say, Mr. President I don’t want to make hardline position. I don’t want to ask you to do it now because there will be a time that we shall be doing it. But I have to wait for your President to mention it in passing for me to respond.”

Duterte said the talking points will be broad enough to accommodate all issues but out of courtesy, the “oriental way” he would wait for the right time. He said the general outline of the agenda was reached in the preliminary talks between Philippines Foreign Secretary and his Chinese counterpart.

Duterte to visit China Oct 20 -21

Published by Ellen on September 29, 2016

By Charmaine Deogracias Vera Files Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will visit Beijing on Oct. 20 and 21, in what reliable diplomatic sources say is a…

Obama and Xi talk about jet lag at APEC reception

Published by Ellen on November 23, 2015

Do powerful persons ever engage in small talk? And what do they talk about?

Former Vice President of Taiwan Vincent C. Siew shared with members of media some tidbits about the Leaders Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation held in Manila last week.

Chinese Presifent Xi Jinping and U.S. President Obama talk about jet lag at pre-dinner conversation Mall of Asia arena. Beside Obama, hidden from the camera, is Taiwan's Vincent Siew. — Chinese Presifent Xi Jinping and U.S. President Obama talk about jet lag at pre-dinner conversation Mall of Asia arena. Beside Obama, hidden from the camera, is Taiwan’s Vincent Siew.

Siew, who represented Taiwan in the 21-Economy grouping, said during the pre-dinner reception at the Mall of Asia Arena on the evening of Nov. 18 (Wednesday), U.S. President Obama joined him and China’s President Xi Jinping.

No formal meeting but Aquino hopes for pull-aside talk with Xi Jinping in APEC

Published by Ellen on October 26, 2014

Two embarrassing incidents were in the minds of officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs when they decided not to request for a bilateral meeting between President Aquino and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Nov. 10 and 11 Leaders Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC to be held in Beijing.

But DFA officials are working on a pull- aside talk between the two leaders on the sidelines of the summit of 21-member organization.

In the forum Wednesday hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Aquino said: “The Chinese side does not ask for a bilateral talk; the Philippine side does not also ask for it. Both of us, I guess—and I am hopeful—are looking for a solution that can be win-win.”

Veteran diplomat Lauro Baja on the ‘New China’

Published by Ellen on November 8, 2012

The changing of the guards in China is ongoing at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China which started yesterday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will turn over leadership to Vice President Xi Jinping.

One of the Philippines’ seasoned diplomats, Lauro Baja, formerly the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations talked to some members of media and shared his thoughts on how the Philippines should deal with the “new China.”

Baja, who also served as Foreign Affairs undersecretary for policy, thinks despite the change in leadership, China “will not be able to veer away too much from what is existing now. “

But, he said, “there is now a new dynamic in China, the news is now more vocal, the social media is more vocal and there is a greater degree of nationalism among people in the streets. As a matter of fact they now think and they may be rightly so that they are now the center of the world. “