Source: Public Relations and Information Department

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Senior Chinese leader arriving Sunday
16 October 2004 01:31:36 PM
Writer: Noel Albano, PRID

Senior Chinese leader Wu Guanzheng is arriving in Manila Sunday afternoon via a chartered flight at the head of a small delegation to open a four-day official visit from October 17 to 20.

Wu Guanzheng is a senior member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and is also secretary general of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC.

Speaker Jose de Venecia will lead top House leaders in welcome ceremonies for Mr. Wu and his party at the Dignitaries Lounge of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The seven-man official CPC delegation includes Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee, Zhang Shutian, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; Gan Yisheng, member and secretary general of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; Wu Yuping, member of the Standing Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; Bai Ma, deputy secretary of Qinghai Provincial Committee of the CPC; and Ambassador to the Philippines Wu Hongbo.

Mr. Wu Guanzheng and his party will be accompanied by a senior working staff from the International Department of the Central Committee headed by Director General Wu Shumin.

The Chinese leader and his delegation will call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Malacañang Palace at noon Monday and Senate President Franklin Drilon later in the afternoon.

Speaker de Venecia will tender dinner in honor of Mr. Wu and will present to him the Congressional Medal of Achievement in ceremonies at the Manila Hotel to be attended by senior House leaders including Bulacan Rep. Lorna Silverio, chair of the House Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Diplomacy and its vice chair, Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan Jr.

De Venecia said Mr. Wu’s visit “will further strengthen” bilateral relations and parliamentary cooperation between the People’s Republic of China (PROC) and the Philippines.

Born in August 1938, Mr. Wu joined the CPC in 1962 and rose from the ranks to become a standing member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of its Disciplinary Committee. He is an engineer with a postgraduate diploma in thermal engineering.

Mrs. Arroyo and de Venecia were in Beijing early last month during the 3rd International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), which issued the Beijing Declaration calling for a debt relief strategy for debt-saddled nations and for countries to fight poverty.

Mrs. Arroyo addressed the opening ceremony of the ICAPP, hosted by the CPC, as chairman of the Lakas CMD while de Venecia, the Lakas president and ICAPP founding chairman, presided over the meeting of the Standing Committee of Asia’s political parties. Upon the CPC’s nomination, de Venecia was elected to a third two-year term as chairman of the ICAPP Standing Committee.

De Venecia conceived and founded the ICAPP in Manila in September 2000 as a forum for majority and minority parties to build bridges of cooperation and understanding.