IN this holiday season of peace, love and forgiveness, it is appropriate to look beyond our fences and reassess our relationship with China — the world's second-largest economy and a nuclear superpower. Filipinos often view China with suspicion and uncertainty. In the Pulse Asia survey of July 2022, Filipinos registered high trust ratings in favor of America with 89 percent approval compared to China's 33 percent.
However, Filipinos share powerful historical and cultural connections with our Chinese neighbors. Since the 9th century, there are chronicles of trade and barter between our indigenous ancestors and Chinese merchants. Between the 16th and 19th century, many Chinese diasporas gradually migrated into the country and built enclaves like the Parian outside old Intramuros during the Spanish period. But early Filipinos and Chinese lived, traded and coexisted peacefully side by side.
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