China envoy looks forward to meeting with Duterte to settle maritime dispute

Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte is “a strong man of principle” who clearly exhibits the type of leadership that the Chinese government would like to work with to improve relations between China and the Philippines, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said yesterday. Speaking at the  handover of donations from the Chinese Embassy in Manila to the University of Philippines regarding the losses of UP in a fire last month, Ambassador Zhao said he looks forward to sitting down with him to talk of ways to settle the two countries’ maritime dispute in the South China Sea. The ambassador said the two-year timetable set down by Duterte for the settlement of the dispute is actually too long. “Let me quote what Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, said: ‘Ten thousand years are too long. Seize the moment, seize the hour.’ I would say that two years is [...]