Habito, Inquirer got it all wrong about China

LAST April 15, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s quote card from the article of one of its columnists, Cielito Habito on US President Trump’s trade tantrums, “Tariffs and Tsunamis,” highlighted his totally speculative and out of place China-bashing saying, “China, shut off from the US market with prohibitive tariffs, will flood Southeast Asian markets with their manufactured products that have nowhere else to go.”

The Inquirer and Habito, a ‘Neo-Liberal economist’ who has done much to damage the country’s economy by advancing imperialist interests when he was at the helms of NEDA under President Ramos, alleged China would deliberately divert tariff-blocked Chinese exports to the US towards Southeast Asian countries, swamp and hurt local employment and manufacturing.

This is farthest from the truth. In fact, in the past decades, ASEAN economies, industries and employment benefitted from the Chinese’ offshoring of their businesses, with local consumers enjoying the increasingly high-quality and affordable modern Chinese products.

If only Habito dares to stop his intellectual laziness, he would surely know that China’s growth markets are now mainly in Africa and South America.

China had long anticipated the regional and global need to balance and re-circulate its massive export earnings with “Win-win” reciprocity from its fantastic economic growth.

And China’s decision to open its huge domestic consumer market to the world and the Global South including, of course, ASEAN – highlighted by the annual China International Import Expo (CIIE) benefited everyone where in December 2024 the Philippines registered $1.6-billion in sales.

The truth is, China has also long been preparing for ‘decoupling’ from the US, especially in the entire decade-and-a-half that has passed by establishing the Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI) all across the globe (the latest project being the Chancy port in Peru).

Thru BRI, it has help to develop the Global South to become productive members of a new global economic community.

China has pushed for the BRICS Plus partnership, created an alternative global financial payments system safe from Western ‘weaponization’ and coercion thru the increased use of the Digital Yuan and the BRICS mBRidge, among others.

Instead of taking any arbitrary, unilateral move, China started the process of consultation with Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, and President Xi Jingping’s recent visit to select ASEAN states in response to Trump’s trade war.

Habito should have noted that ASEAN, in particular, has been targeted by Trump, with 49 percent tariff for Cambodia, 48 percent for Laos, 46 percent for Vietnam, 44 percent for Myanmar, 36 percent for Thailand, and 24 percent for Malaysia and Brunei. This is clearly intended to pressure these countries to reconsider their close economic ties with China.

The two US vassal states in ASEAN, the Philippines and Singapore, were given preferentially lower tariff rates, 17 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

It is doubtful, however if both would benefit from these lower tariffs since the US is bent on imposing some form of economic ‘autarchy,’ forcing Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to paint a grim scenario facing his country despite the preferential treatment.

Last April 16, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, hosted a media forum at the Chinese Embassy where he presented two papers: ‘The Central Conference on Work Related to Neighboring Countries Held in Beijing, Xi Jinping Delivers Important Speech’ and ‘China’s Position on Some Issues Concerning China-US Economic and Trade Relations.’

Both explained in clear details China’s care for its neighboring countries’ welfare and its strict adherence to trade agreements.

Ambassador Huang stressed China’s support for multilateralism and open trade, citing the China-Asean FTA and the ‘Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership’ (RCEP) as models of Win-Win cooperation among countries.

Despite our relations with China at its lowest now, Amb. Huang holds high hopes for economic cooperation with the Philippines, expressing optimism for impending Chinese investments like Saranggani’s $3.5-billion Panhua Steel plant and EPZA-backed Chinese projects.