China sends new envoy as PH steps up case on South China Sea

Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua receives his distinction from Liberian President Sirleaf. (From Liberian government website)

By TESSA JAMANDRE

CHINA is sending a new ambassador to Manila at a time of strained Philippine-Chinese relations, with the Philippines preparing to step up its territorial claims against China before the international arbitral tribunal.

Ambassador Zhao Jinhua, a 48-year-old diplomat who carved his career from the Asian Affairs Department of China’s Foreign Ministry, is arriving Sunday (Feb. 23) to take up his new post.

A tough challenge awaits Zhao in the Philippines, which is embroiled in a territorial dispute with China over a cluster of isles, reefs, shoals and atolls in the South China Sea. The two countries, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have overlapping claims there.

The Philippines is due to submit its Memorial, a very detailed presentation of facts and evidence, to the arbitral tribunal where it brought its case against China in January 2013. The bone of contention is China’s 9-dash line claim over nearly the whole South China Sea, so-called because it carved its claim over the area using nine dashes on the map.

This is the situation that awaits Zhao, who comes to his new assignment armed with Master’s degrees in Economics and International Policy and Planning. His first ambassadorial posting was in Liberia in 2011, where he was honored for “bringing great dynamism to bilateral relations, as well as seeking new avenues of cooperation.” He left Monrovia in December with the highest award of distinction, the Humane Order of African Redemption with a grade of Knight Great Band.

Zhao started his diplomatic career as desk officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Asian Affairs office in 1990, then became attaché and Third Secretary to the Deputy Division Chief from 1994 to 1995, Counselor from 2003 to 2005, until he became the Deputy Director General in 2007. He held that office until 2009 then rose to be the Deputy Director General of the Policy Planning Department, until he was posted in Liberia.

In between, his foreign postings included Lebanon where he was attaché from 1991-1994, second and first secretary in the Chinese Embassy in Thailand from 1999-2001 and counselor at their embassy in the United Kingdom in 2001 to 2003.

Zhao took a leave from the diplomatic service when he served as vice mayor of Hefei City in Anhui province. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and rose up the ranks in the Asian Affairs and Policy Planning Department until he was posted as Ambassador to Liberia.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said the Philippines is pursuing this dispute settlement mechanism to clarify the maritime entitlements of not just China but all parties that used the sea ways to trade.

“We believe that we have exhausted all possibilities, we have attempted a political solution, we have attempted a diplomatic solution and we come to the last resort which is arbitration,” Del Rosario said in a joint press briefing with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Manila on Thursday.