BEIJING, China – China should put aside its territorial dispute with the Philippines to help victims of typhoon Haiyan, state-run media said Tuesday, November 12, adding that doing so was in Beijing’s best interests.
The two countries are embroiled in a long-standing dispute over islands in the strategically vital South China Sea – which Beijing claims almost in its entirety – and Manila says Chinese vessels have occupied the Scarborough Shoal, which it claims, since last year.
China is to give the Philippines $100,000 for relief efforts, the foreign ministry announced Monday, November 11, and the state-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday the territorial row should not affect such decisions.
“It’s a must to aid typhoon victims in the Philippines,” the paper, which is close to the ruling Communist party, said.
But it added: “China’s international image is of vital importance to its interests. If it snubs Manila this time, China will suffer great losses.”
“Aid to the typhoon victims is a kind of humanitarian aid, which is totally different from foreign aid in the past made out of geopolitical concerns,” it said.
China’s decades-long boom has seen it become the world’s second-largest economy but Beijing has long been accused of using trade and aid to further its own agenda, particularly in Africa, where its influence has rocketed in recent years, and also in much of Southeast Asia.
It says it is open to friendly relations.
As well as China and the Philippines, other countries also have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, and tensions have risen sharply in recent years, with Manila and Hanoi accusing Beijing of increasing aggressiveness.
Haiyan hit China after devastating parts of the Philippines, and reports say the storm killed at least seven people in the southern province of Hainan and Guangxi region. – Rappler.com
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