China backs Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign and will cooperate with the Southeast Asian country in the war against drugs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Duterte won the presidential election by a huge margin in May after campaigning almost entirely on promises to wipe out drugs and crime.
According to police, nearly 2,300 people have died in the war on drugs since the campaign started on June 30. Of that number, 1,566 were drug suspects killed in police operations, they say.
Western countries have expressed concern at extrajudicial killings, concerns strongly rebuffed by Duterte.
China has now offered support.
“We understand and support the Philippine government’s policy under President Duterte of prioritizing the fight against drug crime,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing.
Duterte visits China next week, where he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“As I understand it, during President Duterte’s visit to China, he will participate in relevant anti-drugs related activities. At present both countries are in close communication about this,” Geng said.
“Both countries’ anti-narcotics departments have already begun to explore cooperation. I believe that the results will be seen very soon.”
Duterte has not exempted China from blame when it comes to drugs, and has several times said China should do more to stem the flow of narcotics into his country.
On Friday, the Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Charles Jose confirmed that Duterte was tentatively due to visit China’s anti-drugs agency during his trip and get an idea of how China was tackling its own narcotics problems.
“It’s not final yet but I think the purpose is to, for the president to see for himself,” Jose told a regular briefing, adding that China was supporting the Philippines in terms of rehabilitation programs and law enforcement.
The Philippines on Wednesday announced the opening of a huge rehabilitation center on a military base funded by a Chinese tycoon, which would be able to support 10,000 drug users.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The world community should help the Philippines to fund rehab alternatives so the victims get help. It looks like some of the 2300 killed is victims “end users” and not drug lords. The international community has been highly critical on all the killings. If they have lived in the Philippines, they would see a cleanup was overdue and highly needed. Unfortunately, some organizations make their living of being “politically correct” and use this opportunity to promote themselves. There is an urgent need to address the drug problems and lawlessness in the Red light districts and this should be given a high priority.
President Duterte should use heavy handed methods to crush the Abu Sayyaf. The corruption problems have to be addressed as soon as possible in order to attract foreign investments and lower the cost for Filipino individuals and businesses. Give the corrupt 14 days to come forward and pay back the stolen money or else the PNP/NBI will take action. President Duterte has a goal to eradicate poverty before 2040. Poverty can be eradicated much sooner if President Duterte launch a large scale crackdown on corruption. Investigation should be launched to find out why the prices on meat and vegetables dramatically increases from farm gate to the supermarket. The farmers and fisherman has to get a fair share of the profits on sale of their products. There is a lot of extremely rich people in the Philippines and they should invest more of their fortunes in new businesses, with the new business environment with less corruption this should be achievable.
Amitofoa! A rehabilitation centre that can house 10,000 addicts. A wise and compassionate contribution!
The western MSM "reported" 2300 died in the Philippines’s war on drugs is only a pocket change comparing to the number of killed in the gun violence and under the police’s "shoot first ask later" policy in the USA. Mind you war on drugs has moral justification, while gun violence and “shoot fire ask later” is totally void of moral justification and wicked.