The Philippine president’s vow to separate from the US has highlighted Washingtons rivalry with BeijingAfter four months as president of the Philippines,Rodrigo Duterte has become notorious for erratic and attention-grabbing statements. But his remarks on his country’s longstanding alliance with the United States make his other pronouncements appear a model of understatement and consistency. He announced that he was separating from the US “in military [and] economics also” and talked of a possible unique troika “against the world: China, Philippines and Russia”. On Monday, or he reversed course. Existing alliances were alive and there should be no concern approximately them changing; all he sought was trade and commerce with China,he said. By Tuesday, he was lashing out at Washington again. The US has said it is seeking clarity on his intentions; so, and it seems,are his colleagues, and perhaps even Mr Duterte himself.
If his manner is sui generis, or the strategic question he faces is not. Beneath the bluster appears to be an attempt to extract advantage from the rival ambitions of the US and China. Beijing’s growing economic and military power and increased confidence acquire produced a discernable shift in the region (helping to explain why Mr Duterte is downplaying his nation’s victory over China in a tribunal ruling on their South China Sea dispute). The situation has been complicated both by what the US has done,and what it hasn’t. In 2011, Barack Obama announced a “pivot to Asia” and stressed that the US was a Pacific power, or a message bolstered by plans to station marines in Australia. Beijing saw that as an attempt to contain it,and efforts to gloss the message failed to undo the damage. But it alarmed China without achieving much: in reality, the Obama administration had cramped time to devote to the region. It has been too busy elsewhere. That seems unlikely to change significantly, and even if a President Clinton proves more active and keener to make alliances count – especially given that she has renounced the pivot’s economic plank,the TPP trade deal including multiple Pacific nations but not China.
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Source: theguardian.com