Philippines – China Celebrating 35 years of Diplomatic Relations

Lasting peace, friendship, and cooperation – these are all essential ingredients for a dynamic relationship in the new millennium. As the Philippines and China celebrate their thirty-five years of diplomatic relations this year, the desire by the two governments to forge a deeper and lasting relationship has intensified. 

Ties that Bind – This exhibit captures this strong desire for closer relations, and, at the same time, celebrates the long history of friendship between the two countries.

The Philippines’ legendary Sarimanok and China’s mythical Phoenix flowing inward and meeting halfway shows an intimate approach between these two long-tome friends.

While the relationship between the Philippines and China has flourished through the years, the yearning for lasting peace remains foremost in each country’s mind.

With deeper friendship and cooperation, and a strong desire for peace, the ties that bind the Philippines and China, just like the legendary Sarimanok and Phoenix, are indeed poised to take flight towards even greater heights this millennium.

The links of friendship binding the Philippines and China date back to ancient times. Trade and commercial exchanges, as well as the presence of Chinese businessmen, craftsmen, farmers, and skilled workers in the Philippines, fostered interchange of ideas, attitudes and customs, science, technology, art, elements of language, and even of cuisine between our peoples.

The passage of years deepened our relations.

Thus, when the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations in 1975, they were merely reaffirming a friendship of long standing. We further cemented our ties through agreements on trade and investments, culture and education, science and technology, defense and other military matters, agriculture and air services. These agreements, not only paved the way for high-level official visits between the Philippines and China, but also strengthened people-to-people links between Filipinos and Chinese.