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“Noticeably, in the past three years, Paris has expanded its defence cooperation with the Philippines. A deeper, more comprehensive agreement seems like a natural progression,” said Don McLain Gill, geopolitical analyst and lecturer at De La Salle University’s Department of International Studies.
Last year, China was the biggest importer of goods into the Philippines with a total value of US$29.4 billion, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The Philippines exported almost US$11 billion of goods to China over the same year, indicating that the Southeast Asian country ran a trade deficit of about US$18 billion with its neighbour.
Analysts warn that the immigration policy should not be seen as Sinophobic as Manila had the right to filter visas. Authorities say the action was aimed at combating fraud, and in particular, a rampant offshore gaming sector that also preys on Chinese tourists.
“We can’t continue to be like this. Some people have this wrong notion that we just sit back and nothing will happen to us. We may wake up one day, and we won’t have a country any more,” Romualdez warned.
Analysts said this was due to the difference in political power of community groups in the respective countries, adding that while human rights mattered, they played second fiddle to strategic interests and “pragmatic diplomacy”.