An assessment of the Beijing P2P | The Manila Times

MY column last week was a personal account as a PCFR member-delegate to China. It hewed very close to the non-confrontational and excellent insights of Philippine Council of Foreign Relations (PCFR) president Babes Flores. My focus was on the Beijing roundtable (RTD), not on the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou commercial leg of the trip. This column needs no imprimatur from the PCFR and its president; neither is it an addendum to the said report and, therefore, not in any way claiming to be an official account.

During the RTD, I adhered to the Chatham House rule (CHR) that guides the dissemination of information extracted during these high-level meetings and dialogues. This set of rules was originated to allow participants of a discourse like our Beijing RTD to be free to use discreetly whatever information is exchanged with the proviso that the identity or the affiliation of the speaker may not be indiscriminately revealed. The CHR does not apply to unofficial, informal or private conversations outside of the RTD unless such are deemed "off the record" and on background and must be invoked in advance. In any case, none of the occurrences, therefore, are attributable.