Jose De Venecia Jr, the speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives, has the same name as his son, a telecoms businessman, but each tells a disparate tale about China's state-owned companies.

When the elder Mr De Venecia was in 2003 helping to revive a stalled project to rebuild a railway between Manila and provinces north of the capital, he won support from China's top leaders and a soft loan from the Export-Import Bank of Chinathat put it back on course.