SECRETARY Of Foreign Affairs Ma. Theresa Lazaro is clearly making a difference in her job as the country’s top career diplomat. In the six months since Lazaro took charge of our foreign affairs and policy management, we are already seeing major initiatives under her leadership.
She is now attempting to restore balance to our relations with the most important country in regional and global economics– China.
Given the depth and breadth of the government’s organized ‘Sinophobia’ campaign, putting sense and pragmatism on our diplomacy is a bold move for Secretary Lazaro.
How she is handling the pressure from both President Bongbong Marcos and the US must be an interesting story in itself.
Last October 15, our Embassy in Beijing announced the launching of an ‘eVisa’ for Chinese nationals starting this November “as part of continuing efforts to strengthen people-to-people exchange and facilitate trade and tourism.”
“The implementation of the eVisa comes at an opportune time,” said Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz, adding that under the leadership of Secretary Lazaro, the DFA met with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 2025 for the Joint Consular Consultations that resulted to the restoration of the eVisa for Chinese nationals.
The eVisa for Chinese visitors coming to the Philippines was immediately welcomed by Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco (I think the nation could hear her sigh of relief), who said:
“The suspension of the e-Visa system in 2023 had a significant and measurable impact on our ability to meet tourism targets, particularly from one of our strongest pre-pandemic markets (China), which is why the Department of Tourism has consistently advocated for the reinstatement of the e-Visa system since its suspension.”
The Philippines welcomed 1.74-million Chinese tourists in 2019 who spent $2.3 billion during their leisure stay here.
The 2020 to 2021 Covid 19 pandemic disrupted the bonanza, however.
Everybody expected that our tourism’s post-pandemic recovery would be led by Chinese tourists but the February 2023 “pivot to US” of the Marcos regime and the consequent “assertive transparency” proxy war against China by the US its puppets in our national security sector put a stop to the return of Chinese tourists.
But the reaction from US proxies to the eVisa program is, as expected, vehement. One of the froth-in-the -mouth anti-China congressmen, Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro issued a statement saying, “I am strongly opposed to this plan of our ambassador, Jaime FlorCruz. The President should tell Mr. FlorCruz to scrap it…
“Chinese nationals in our country endangers… our national security. Many of them are spies and criminals engaged in kidnapping-for-ransom, illegal gambling and other illicit activities.”
But despite all the “Chinese spy networks” scaremongering no case has ever been proven; all were staged-managed for the media.
China remains the Philippines’ top trading partner with almost $45-billion in bilateral trade. Chinese syndicates preying on fellow Chinese nationals have been busted and the Chinese embassy has been very cooperative in repatriating them for prosecution.
In ASEAN, the Philippines is the second worst performer in tourism after Myanmar in 2024, attracting 5.9 million tourists compared to 1.06 million for Myanmar.
On top of the chart is Thailand with 25.5-million, Malaysia 25-million, Vietnam 17.5-million, Singapore 16.5-million, Indonesia 13.6-million, and Cambodia with 6.7-million tourist arrivals.
And the top source of tourism in ASEAN? You guess it right, China.