PACS former Vice-President, now Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Jaime FlorCruz, presented his credentials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 24 February 2023.

We share below some remarks he shared at the PACS General assembly shortly before he moved to Beijing.

Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz
Excerpted Remarks at the PACS General Assembly, February 4, 2023
Confucius Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University

Thank you, PACS, a group of like-minded scholars, students of anything China and Chinese, and anything of Philippines-China relations. Thank you, PACS for serving as breeding ground, a hub, of ideas and insights, experiences and perspectives of things China and Chinese. Thank you, PACS for paving the way for the emergence of such revered scholars and thinkers such as Benito Lim, Aurora Roxas-Lim, Aileen S.P. Baviera, Nona Zaldivar, and Chito Sta. Romana. 

I count myself as a proud PACS member and beneficiary.  

Geopolitics is complex, As Mao said in the 1970s, 天下大乱 there is great disorder under heaven.  So, we need to brace for that; most importantly, we need to take care of our national interest.  

I wish to leave you with some of my favorite Chinese phrases and sayings that have been in my mind as I embark on my new mission as ambassador. 

不卑不亢- one of my favorite idioms, which means neither servile nor overbearing, neither haughty nor obsequious or kowtowing. It is to strike a balance in terms of one’s stand. I expect to take that attitude, and I expect to be treated the same way. 

As another Chinese saying goes, 己所不欲，勿施於人, a passage from Confucius, the Golden Mean: “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”  Or in the original “ Do not do unto others what you do not wish others to do unto you. 

Another one that I like—吃水不忘挖井人 , drinking the water of a well, one should never forget who dug it. So here I wish to thank my parents and family, my friends, all my teachers and mentors in life. And of course, they include you my fellow PACS members. 

Finally, as I prepare to fly to China to take up what we all know is an exciting but challenging job, I am guided by a passage from one of my favorite Chinese writers, Lu Xun:

横眉冷对千夫指
俯首甘为孺子牛

Fierce browed, I cooly defy a thousand pointing fingers.
Head bowed, like willing ox, I serve the children.

Please pray for me, please wish me luck and success.  Thank you!