Chinese lawmaker shelves Manila visit amid row
Agence France-Presse | 03/17/2009 7:32 PM
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MANILA - A Chinese legislator has postponed a visit to the Philippines this week, officials here said Tuesday, amid fresh tensions over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
Li Jianguo, vice chairman and secretary general of China's National People's Congress, postponed the visit "indefinitely due to urgent matters at home," presidential spokesman Cerge Remonde told reporters.
Li had been scheduled to visit President Gloria Arroyo Wednesday at the Malacanang presidential palace.
However, Remonde insisted that "we believe the postponement has nothing to do with the baselines law. Our diplomatic relations with China remain strong."
The controversial law, which was signed by Arroyo last week, seeks to make the Philippines' maritime boundaries compliant with a UN treaty but does not claim disputed territory, according to her spokesman.
Beijing earlier this week sent a patrol ship to the Spratly islands, to assist Chinese fishing boats and transport vessels in an area that China claims as its exclusive maritime zones.
The move has been largely seen as China flexing its military might against the smaller claimants to the Spratlys and the nearby Paracels, following Manila's passage of the baselines law. The law includes parts of the Spratlys as well as the Scarborough shoal, which is also claimed by Beijing.
Both China and Vietnam have filed diplomatic protests over the law.
Apart from China, Vietnam and the Philippines, the Spratlys are also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.
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