Philippines’
Rodrigo Duterte announces ‘separation’ from US
President
willing to set aside court victory over Beijing on South China Sea
claims
by: Charles Clover
in Beijing and Michael Peel in Manila
Rodrigo Duterte has
announced his country’s “separation” from America, capping a
remarkable month of diplomacy in which the Philippine leader has
burnt bridge after bridge with the US and made overtures to Beijing.
“I announce my
separation from the United States,” he said to applause at a
meeting in Beijing on Thursday. A day earlier he had said: “I will
not go to America any more. We will just be insulted there. So time
to say goodbye my friend.”
Mr Duterte also
hailed a new era in Sino-Philippine relations, signalling a detente
in the nations’ fierce maritime dispute.
“Even as we
arrived in Beijing close to winter, this is the springtime of our
relationship,” he told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
In advance of their
meeting, Mr Duterte had suggested he would be willing to overlook an
international court ruling in the Philippines’ favour, handing his
hosts a big diplomatic victory.
He said he would not
mention July’s ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The
Hague against Beijing’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea,
telling Chinese media the decision was “just a piece of paper with
four corners”.
Beijing had
encouraged Manila to set the ruling aside in exchange for investment
and joint development. Ramon Lopez, Philippine trade secretary, said
on Thursday evening his country and China would sign $13.5bn of deals
during this week’s visit.
Mr Duterte’s
dispute with the US is partly based on American policy in the region
over the past few decades but has been exacerbated by Washington’s
criticism of his war on drugs. China has since sought to capitalise
with an effort to bring Mr Duterte into its orbit, which could have
crucial implications for US security strategy in Asia.
John Kirby,
spokesman at the state department, said the US was “baffled” by
Mr Duterte’s comments, which were “inexplicably at odds with the
very close relationship that we have with the Filipino people”.
Assistant secretary
of state Daniel Russel would travel to Manila next week to “seek an
explanation” for what Mr Duterte means when he calls for a
“separation from the US”.
“It isn’t just
the United States who is baffled by this rhetoric,” Mr Kirby said.
“We have heard from many of our friends and partners in the region
who are likewise confused about where this is going.”
Mira Rapp-Hooper, an
Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security in Washington,
said the US had made three assumptions about Mr Duterte that have not
yet been borne out: that his statements about the alliance were
largely rhetoric, that he would be constrained by strong public
support for the US in the Philippines and that his rush to make nice
with China would produce little.
However, she said
that in any agreement with China over economic assistance or over the
South China, “the devil is in the detail and we have not seen the
detail yet”.
She added that Mr
Duterte’s planned trip to Japan next week would demonstrate a lot
about his real intentions. If he continued to pursue the closer
economic and military ties that have built up between the two
countries in recent years, it would mean he was much less committed
to the idea of seeking a broader alliance with China and Russia than
his statements have suggested.
The Philippines had
been Washington’s closest partner that is involved in the South
China Sea disputes. Earlier this year, the US negotiated an agreement
with the Philippines which would allow it to store equipment at five
airbases in the country and increase the number of visits by US navy
ships.
The coming days will
show whether Beijing can convert a big diplomatic opportunity into a
permanent foreign policy victory over Washington.
“The improvement
of [ the Philippine] relationship with China will be a major blow to
America’s interference in the South China Sea,” said Zhu Feng, a
professor of international relations at Peking University. “This
visit will not only improve the bilateral relationship between China
and the Philippines, but will go beyond and bring a shockwave effect
in many areas.”
Wang Chong, a senior
researcher at Charhar Institute in Beijing, said the improvement in
Beijing-Manila relations could have a “radiating effect in the
region” that would bring other estranged neighbours closer to
China’s orbit.
A statement by China
after the meeting between the two leaders said they had signed 13
agreements and agreed to “push forward the overall improvement of
the China-Philippines relationship”. No details were given of the
agreements.
Only after the China
visit will it become clear what exactly Beijing has promised Mr
Duterte in exchange for his goodwill. Reuters on Wednesday cited
sources in the Chinese leadership saying they may grant Philippine
fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal, a strategic and economically
vital rocky outcrop that China seized in 2012.
Person in the news
Rodrigo Duterte, the
populist punisher who has people hooked
Shooting from the
hip could yet land the Philippines’ president in trouble
Richard Javad
Heydarian, an assistant professor at Manila’s De La Salle
University, said Mr Duterte's decision to play down the territorial
conflicts with China had “raised eyebrows back home in Manila”
where memories are still fresh of previous disputes over the
Scarborough Shoal. “It is too early to talk about full recovery of
bilateral relations, but definitely the trip broke the ice,” Mr
Heydarian said,
Mr Duterte used his
visit to cast the Philippines and China as bound by fate in the South
China Sea. He mentioned his own Chinese ancestry: his grandfather was
an immigrant from Xiamen in Fujian province.
Developing his
country’s economy was more important than exacerbating tensions
with China, he said. “One hundred years from now, it’s really
meaningless,” Mr Duterte said. “The oceans cannot feed us all.
Your fish is my fish.”
Additional reporting
by Sherry Fei Ju
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