up again and the president of the philippines receives a lavish while come in begging and sons lucrative deals. is a long time us allied, pivoting towards china. my colleagues been fizzling, has those stories and more after a short break. and remember, there's a lot more news on our website, www. dot com and do follow us on twitter. instagram. the handle is after dw, i've got office from me and the new scene, and spoke with scoring. do we say they were about giving up sports life every weekend on d. w?

sometimes a seed is all you need to allow big ideas to grow. we're bringing environmental conservation to life with learning paths like global ideas. we will show you how climate change and environmental conservation is taking shape around the world and how we can all make a difference. knowledge grows through sharing and download it now for free. with this is d, w, use asia coming up to date. juggling the world's 2 main superpowers, the united states and china. can the philippines have the best of both worlds in basement and so called security assurances from beijing, as well as one of washington kohls. it's an unwavering commitment, as an ally and with sarah cove. it over in and the holiday rush ahead. is it time

to mask up again? i talked to well known for ologist julian tank. ah, i've been for solon welcome. our 1st guest today describes the philippines as the weakest link in the region when it comes to standing up the china president, ferdinand macos junior, has made his 1st state visit to bay jing agreeing with chinese leadership in ping to manage their differences on territorial disputes. while discussing big business deals, the trip comes after american vice president, carla harris visited the philippines in november. the pair discussed new projects funded by the u. s, including more defense sites, claim moving ties with china to a higher gear. this was to philippine presidents explicit wish, before he embarked on a 3 day trip to being his chinese counterpart,

reciprocated. seeing the friendship between the 2 nations has always been a precious one. go your father. together with the older generation of chinese orders, i made the historic decision to establish diplomatic ties between china and the philippines. you personally participated in witness some of the most important interaction osceola. during the dictatorship of the president's father and a seventy's dan, 18 year old marco's junior, already played a role in forging friendship and gauging with communist party leader mulder don't. but the philippines has also kept ties with us for washington. any joint military drills like this have been key to keep it strategic interest in the pacific. that decades old alliance fell into stagnation when former president rodrigo detached, took office in 2016 during his 6 years and power detached,

a sort of close relations with bridging in exchange for investments. the new president says he'll pursue a different good friend to all enemy to none strategy seeking to restore ties with you as well, keeping the friendship with china and has not begun my responsibility. but certainly my privilege to be able to continue that legacy to continue to promote all the friendships between china and the philippines. marcus junior visit comes amid on resolved territorial disputes in the south china sea. now the neighbors of agree to set up direct communication channels to handle attentions. the, sorry, this, while signing over a dozen deals that range from infrastructure development to the importance of durians from the philippines all come home. i a fruitful trip or for the president elections between that philippine journalists other santos joins us here now.

berlin studios. so michael junior in beijing and before that i find this quite interesting the us vice president in the philippines, but not by no. no, no. as we become anna harris, but let's look at what those 2 visits mean been. i think it's more of, you know, the philippines, balancing this tightrope of a relationship that it has with both china and the u. s. now what did come out of harris visit state, you know, she visited below on which is a major water way, flash point in the philippines and made some strong statements about defending territories and protecting territories against neighbors. right? so they saw this, a lot of political analysts saw this as a message, not just to the philippines, but also to china. and then now you see the philippines going over to china for this state visit. it's more like it wants to be friends with both countries. definitely. but the philippines seems to answer the question of how can you be

friends with a country like china that is actively encroaching on your territory and contesting claims to territory that is yours. geographically. this is difficult because the u . s. is so far away and they didn't send biden, as i mentioned at the same time the philippines has tried or in its backyard. absolutely. and that's why it's also like it has been over the past years. engaged in so many territorial disputes with china along with its neighbors. but unlike in the south china sea, which you refer to as the west, philippine c, i will not call it the south china sea, but the west philippine sea. the exclusive economic zone of the philippines, which all countries are entitled to within a certain radius outside of your borders, has been encroached in by china. right. but, and we see where do we see our neighbors? our neighbors, like indonesia have issued very strong statements about will not give up even an

inch of indonesia yet mom has like, had on, had, had, you know, encounters with china, in their part also of the south china sea that has overlapping claims. and here you see the philippines quite pop about asserting its claims and how to, to china. i think that number one we, we wasted an opportunity with really that, that haig, when that awarded or that recognized the philippine claim on the west philippine sea as ancestral domain. ok, that was such a loss in terms of not upholding that. and that could also be a rallying cry for all the other countries in the region that have overlapping claims to the south china sea, which the china claims with that 9 dash line. so i thought that that was like, that was a wasted opportunity. if i may also tell you bed, the fishermen that i spoke to in the country when you know that have these fight offs with chinese ships. they said that when made us feel like we could be someone, you know, we're a small player in this region. and this country,

recognizing our claims, was an issue that we could stand up to someone like china. so while the philippines is doing deals with china, a lot of them big financial deals here. where does that put the philippines? historically strong relationship with us? i think they're still a very strong historical relationship with the us that's. that's like iron clad with all sorts of deals that range from maritime security, military partnerships and economic. let's not forget that the u. s. is a huge economic assistant assistance partner. yes. to the philippians, right. so i think that part is, is ironclad. let's also not forget the relationship. the marcus family has with the u. s. back in 1086 when they were kicked out of the country and ousted it was the u . s. that sheltered them in exile for all those years before they were allowed to come back to the philippines from historical ties as well as economic ties there on

a santos. thank you very much for coming in and giving us your insights. thank you man. ah, the chinese are about to embark on some 2000000000 trips this luna new year. some old possibly, many of them will be carrying the corona virus with them. remember, this is the event that spots the 1st mass spreading of covered 19 from one. these are the latest scenes from an emergency board of the hospital in shanghai, and it could get worse. epidemiologists say some parts of the countryside haven't yet had cove. it out breaks. but with the travel rush late this month, the disease will find its way into every corner of the country. they're all just julian tang is an honorary associate professor of respiratory sciences. he joins us from last day in the u. k. we've got a massive discrepancy in official figures and independent projections of daily

deaths in china right now. since there are covered was dropped last month. the world health organization says deaths of being under reported. how dangerous is the virus right now for the chinese? so this course has been around in the countries elsewhere globally, and the risks the china is really in the population that hasn't been vaccinated within a very effective vaccine. while they brought in china, we know from previous studies shows relatively low frequency, probably around 50 to 60 percent c $98.00 minus the size of maxine. but of course the viruses me too far beyond these original vaccine. so the virus is not to be prevented from transmitting, but best of actually prevent most of your disease. and you predicted ami kron would be less severe and more infectious. how do you see the virus now mutating all moving ahead. once it spreads around the world again, well, i see exactly what i predicted. so even data from the u. s. in europe and elsewhere,

show the boss is actually bathing current immunity from national previous explanation. but it's not causing more severe disease in those countries which are going well actually with the m r and a buttons that work very well. the problem again is if you have more cases due to high transfer ability, you get more severe disease and more gas in those cool effects, united or live action rate. so with the person, we're pretty well. the vaccination right, is not good among the elderly in china, or is it now and there are some cultural issues around i know from friends and colleagues in the hong kong where the only almost suspicious of the vaccine, se weston is all about me causing that low take, take the vaccine in china, and on the topic of new variance, the w h o says the chinese covey dot shows no new variance. and is that a big sigh of relief for their ologist for us as well?

well, yes, but that's not surprising. this virus news, no orders, it's interest missing very quickly across the world from the, from the alpha. very. and then along with delta, now i mean, crunch is even more transmissible, but look, is less severe. so i'm not worried about the virus to say for the rest of the world . i just hope that the, the wonderful people in china can get good enough vaccines. a can you tell us does, does china, in your opinion, have the outbreak under control? well well i mean the rest of the world doesn't have the control either just living with it. so i think that's a relative comparison. i think what's happening in china is that because they delayed so long and getting a good back seen into that population. the prices for well beyond the typically see from the i'm already in the west to be controlled by those back scenes. so the see

a kind of double whammy with a delayed vaccination that coverage with highly effective back see plus the ongoing mutation. recall as items vaccine that mean and she's and just tell me again, you mentioned you have colleagues and acquaintances or relatives in hong kong. how observant and stringent do hong kong as need to be right at this time with learning new year coming out, running the whole is a very well prime for this. they know that all is opening this weekend. masking is the norm there. but luckily so far, the variance in china very similar to those 6 else class. i don't think that's gonna be a major issue, but they may get people coming in across the board. i get sick in hong kong if they have one abilities. and then at the house, i'm more been on the home health care system. the paper. well, just gillian, thank. thank you so much for the insights and we really appreciate your expertise.

thank you and thank you for joining us here on d. w. use asia. don't forget to check out our other stories on t w dot com slash asia, or on our facebook page or twitter feed. enjoy your weekend. i'll see you again soon. bye bye. it's a journey across the entire continent. a variety of cars, so work on this. so all the talking to the movers. shake is visionaries and meters

when binding the meaning of modern africa. free mag next on d, w. they want to know what makes a german with love and banding thing away from them. but i'm not even know how to work my own car, and everyone with later holes and every day getting are you ready to meet the german can join me, rachel stuart on d. w. in recent years, the creative i've seen has been the foreigner in the trend of collaborating to bring a broader artistic offering to the public, creating spaces that has more than just one creative expression and in the process, strengthening the creative community. today we're exploring such a space association of ours kentoria here performing arts and fine arts come together.