Neighbors across the sea, China and the Philippines areboth poised at an important stage of national developmentafter maintaining satisfying economic growth in recentyears.Strong complementary traits between the two economies havehelped foster closer bilateral tade cooperation. In 2017, China replaced Japan as the Philippines’largest trading partner. China isalso the largest source of importsand the second largest sourcecountry of foreign tourist arrivalsin the Philippines. The twocounties enjoy hugepotential for futurecooperation.