AMONG the various disagreements between China and the Philippines, perhaps the only issue in which one side or the other is even close to being unambiguously right is that of gambling. The Philippines' perspective on it is quite frankly parasitic, and by refusing to accede to China's wishes or at least reasonably accommodate them, the Philippines is practicing the sort of interference in another country's internal affairs that it would never tolerate itself.
Although it was an incidental and only briefly acknowledged topic during The Manila Times' forum on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Wednesday, China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian did not mince the few words he devoted to it. Gambling is illegal in China, he explained, and Chinese citizens are not permitted to own or operate gambling establishments or be employed in them.
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