WIKILEAKS: CHINA USED ZTE TO BUY GMA INFLUENCE; A 'TYPICALLY' CHINESE DEAL
MANILA, AUGUST 27, 2011 (TRIBUNE) By Michaela P. del Callar - The United States did not see as a threat the flourishing ties between the Philippines and China during the past administration of former President Gloria Arroyo but said the anomalous National Broadband Network (NBN) deal awarded to Chinese supplier ZTE was "typical of the deals that China reportedly uses worldwide to make friends and buy influence," a 2008 U.S. Embassy cable released yesterday by online whistleblower Wikileaks stated.
Then U.S. Ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney, in her April 28, 2008 cable labeled as "sensitive," believes the U.S. remains a reliable ally of the Philippines despite Manila's increasing engagement with Beijing as corruption and graft-tainted projects entered into by the two countries had cast a dark cloud over its intensifying relations.
"Strengthened Philippine-People's Republic of China ties do not imply a weakening of our strong bonds with the Philippines," the cable said. "Recent scandals have reawakened long-held views among Filipinos that link ethnic Chinese to corrupt practices."
The scuttled deal between Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Co., Ltd., or ZTE and the Arroyo administration, is an allegedly overpriced deal that was supposed to establish a nationwide telecommunications network such as broadband Internet services, video conferencing, landline, mobile phone calls and e-mail requirements for all government agencies from the national to the local level.
Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo and close political allies reportedly received millions of dollars worth of bribes from the Chinese firm, according to witnesses who testified before Senate hearings.
"Unlike the World Bank, the IMF, and many bilateral providers of assistance here, China does not link its aid to issues such as good governance, rule of law, or respect for human rights."
Thus, "public skepticism and scrutiny have underlined shortcomings in China's soft power efforts," Kenney said. .
The U.S. and China have been at loggerheads in Asia, where they have tried to court support and expand security and economic clout. In recent years, the Philippines' bilateral relations with China, particularly the economic aspect of its ties, increasingly became more dynamic and vibrant than the U.S. In 2008, Kenney said bilateral trade figures surged to a record high of $30.62 billion, an almost 10-fold increase from the $3.14 billion in 2000.
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http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/hl/hl111067.htm
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CHINA'S INTRUSIONS LINKED TO GLORIA ARROYO'S DEALS
BY: Ellen Tordesillas
THE current word war between the Philippines and China is another proof of the continuing curse of Gloria Arroyo on the Filipino people.
The latest series of diplomatic protests lodged by the Philippines with China and submitted also to the United Nations have their roots in the controversial Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking entered into by the Arroyo government with China in 2004 which allowed China and later on Vietnam to explore not only the Philippine-occupied islands in the mineral-rich Spratlys but areas that are clearly Philippine territory.
The JMSU was signed during Gloria Arroyo's 2004 visit to China which paved the signing of at least two graft-riddled deals : NorthRail and national broadband network with ZTE.
Last March, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest when two Chinese patrol boats intruded into Reed Bank in Western Palawan where a seismic survey is being conducted by the Department of Energy with a private firm. The Philippine Navy had to come in and drove away the Chinese ships in what Philippine officials assert as "Philippine territory."
It was followed by a much-delayed protest last April by the Philippines over China's nine-dash line map submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. China's map, submitted by China to the U.N on May 7, 2009 supports their claim that the whole South China belongs to them including the Spratly islands which are being claimed in part by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
This month, the Philippines again protested the discovery on Amy Douglas that the Chinese had erected a number of steel posts and placed a buoy near the breaker of the bank also known as Iroquois reef. The Philippine Navy reported that Chinese ships were seen unloading building materials.
The Philippine Navy had removed the posts and the buoy.
read more.....
http://www.malaya.com.ph/june15/edtorde.html
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