According to two big-time mainland Chinese investors who were in Manila for several days, China does not want to go to war with the Philippines over Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal which, based on the ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, is a part of the Philippines.
In fact, China is looking to invest more in the country. If diplomatic talks between the Philippines and China go well, China will finance the building of railroads in Mindanao, solve the traffic problem in Manila by building more skyways and send food and industrial technicians here, they added.
According to them, China wants to make the Philippines a major economic partner by turning it into its food basket and industrial hub.
The two investors said that China needs to feed its 1.3 billion people.
It wants to lease vast tracts of land for agricultural and industrial production, especially in Mindanao, they told a journalist from the Inquirer.
China, they added, has leased or bought lands in the Middle East and Africa for its growing agricultural and industrial needs.
But China prefers the Philippines as a major economic partner because we are just two hours away by plane from its nearest province, the investors said.
The Asian superpower wants vegetables, bananas, mangoes, other tropical fruits, fish and seafood; it plans to hire the Philippines' skilled labor force for the offices and factories it wants to put up in the country.
If the economic partnership between China and the Philippines is realized, millions of jobs will be created and millions of Filipinos will not have seek employment overseas.
But how do the two countries resolve the diplomatic impasse over the shoal?
The two big-time businessmen who know people in high places in China said that the Asian superpower would find a way for both parties to save face.
