Xi Jinping's state visit to the Philippines is the first by a Chinese president in more than a decade. Bilateral relations were strained a couple of years ago over the South China Sea. But since Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, there has been improvement. Speaking to Chinese media outlets including CCTV earlier this month, Duterte said he hopes cooperation with China can be deepened.

HUANG ZHENGZHENG CCTV REPORTER "Mr. President, what are your expectations of President Xi's visit?"

RODRIGO DUTERTE PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT "There was a cooling off in our relations. It shows us not snow but an icy one, and that is because the Philippines dovetailed the economic and political policies of the US. And although not a matter of the military but the restraints in foreign trade and commerce. So when I won I decided to chart a different story for our bilateral relations. Otherwise, we have improved the relations with the new ties with China and the Philippines and we kind of just restore the normalcy that we used to have or have had with China so we agreed on a renewed bilateral relationship, signed some trade and commerce and for the first time China was buying everything from us. But this relation plus of course the commitment of China to help in the industrialization of my country. Several agreements amounting to so many millions of pesos, we agreed to trade, we can pay to each other my currency and the currency of RMB, that would be the currency that will govern our trade and commerce and payments and all. And so many infrastructure projects on the way, it's the one that we utterly lack. There can never be a time that we will fight with China militarily, and so far as I'm concerned as long as I'm president we'd always want to talk about peace."

"How can we keep this good momentum of the bilateral relations going?"

RODRIGO DUTERTE PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT"Yes, one is people to people, actually. I'm sure China is very lenient in issuing visa for Filipinos intending to go to China. Second is that China is planning to hire Filipinos to work there may be to make up for them. China has gone by leaps and bounds and at one time your demographic experts say that we need some land here but from factories but we do not have enough manpower or expertise. And it has sounded off a plan to employ Filipinos that would greatly enhance our friendship, people to people, our national interest now is China because of the Filipinos and for the Chinese also to have a stake in the national interest of my country because of the so many Chinese and the fact that you have so many investments here. And why spoil it? We go for the maximum benefit for both countries."