"If you do not have money you are not my friend. I go to China thinking of money because in truth I need money" Duterte said in a speech before flying to Beijing to attend a business forum.
Duterte had sought closer economic and diplomatic ties with China refusing to flaunt a UN-backed arbitration court's ruling in 2016 that invalidated Beijing's claims over islands reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea.
The President will address the Boao Forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan dubbed as Asia's answer to the World Economic Forum held annually at the ski resort town of Davos in Swtizerland.