Imelda Marcos: A voice China might listen to amid Taiwan Strait crisis

Her past links to Mao and her family’s unique status may allow her to play peacemaker

- Benjamin Kang Lim

For all her surfeit of shoes, former Philippine first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos is fondly remembered by millions of Chinese as an ultimate diplomat who captivated Mao Zedong and what was then an isolated and impoverished nation with her beauty, charm and elegance when she visited in 1974.

Accompanied by her only son – now president of the Philippines, Mr Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr – Mrs Marcos made the historic 10-day trip which produced the iconic photo of Mao kissing her hand and paved the way for the normalisation of bilateral relations the following year.

Months later in 1975, she visited China again with her husband, then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr, and their daughters. When Mr Marcos Sr offered to switch Manila’s diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, Mao assured him that China would neither overthrow the government nor exploit the Philippines. “We are one family now,” Mao declared.

Mrs Marcos also helped change the political landscape in South-east Asia, leading the way to China eventually pulling the plug on a contentious programme to export its revolution to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

But the instrumental role that she played in China’s landmark decision to stop funding and arming the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, has been taken for granted.

After normalisation, the CPP was left to fend for itself, possibly preventing scores of military and civilian casualties resulting from fighting between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Communist guerillas over the ensuing years.