China has been building up its de facto claims to the South China Seas for over 30 years. The US has done nothing across all the different administrations. China has the chess board ready for checkmate.
Two things should be said here.
First: Duterte is a crude vulgarian. He has called Obama a “son of a whore,” and picked a fight with the pope. As a politician he is often compared to Donald Trump. As a president, he has acted like an authoritarian, waging a paramilitary war against his nation’s drug users and drug dealers.
Second: Duterte’s own government appears to have been kept out of the loop about this new alliance. On Friday, Duterte himself said he did not mean to imply that he would cut diplomatic ties with the U.S., but he has not backed away from his pledge to end military cooperation with the U.S., though others in his government have suggested he will back down.
Regardless, this is a big story. The Philippines has been an important U.S. ally since the beginning of the cold war. What’s more, the Obama administration has invested in the country as part of its pivot to Asia. In 2014 the two countries signed an enhanced defense cooperation agreement. When the Philippines brought a case against China at the Hague over China’s artificial islands in its territorial waters, the U.S. supported the Philippines diplomatically.
I think there is more to this than the oceans
China is experiencing labor cost increases that affect their competitive rates.
China can outsource some jobs to the highly educated but low wage philippines.
Part of it can be about jobsi
Let’s not forget that China owns the Panama Canal too.
China has been building up its de facto claims to the South China Seas for over 30 years. The US has done nothing across all the different administrations. China has the chess board ready for checkmate.
Yes, thats it precisely.
Its going to get very interesting over there.