Malacañang on Monday night, September 16, said President Rodrigo Duterte met with Chongqing party chief Chen Min’er and other members of Communist Party of China (CPC) in a courtesy call at the Palace’s Music Room.
In a press statement, Malacañang described Chen as “a protégé of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” and that he “is seen as a rising political star in China.”
Chen became the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing, one of China’s leading cities, two years ago, as well as one of the 25-member Politburo, the CPC’s top decision-making body.
He also served as the head of the provincial department of propaganda and vice governor of Zhejiang province. He became Guizhou’s governor in 2013 before being promoted as provincial communist party secretary.
Accompanying Chen in Malacañang were hinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua, Vice Minister of the International Department-CPC Central Committee (IDCPC) Guo Yezhou, Executive Vice Mayor of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government and Secretary-General of CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee Wang Fu.
The Filipino officials present during the meeting included PDP-Laban President Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, Department of Energy Secretary and PDP-Laban Vice Chairman Alfonso Cusi, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority Secretary and PDP-Laban Vice President for International Affairs Raul Lambino, Department of Foreign Affairs Acting Secretary Jose Eduardo Malaya III, and Senators Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Francis Tolentino.
Back in March, Duterte also met with a Chinese delegation led by Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, to explain that the Philippine government had nothing to do with the complaint filed against Xi before the International Criminal Court by former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.
