October 21, 2016

"Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his Philippine counterpart President Rodrigo Duterte Thursday. The two heads of state witnessed the signing of 13 Sino-Philippine cooperation agreements, covering tourism, fruit exports, infrastructure construction and defensive security consultations. Bilateral ties have turned a new page.

The maritime disputes appear to have been shelved, replaced by pragmatic cooperation projects worth hundreds of million dollars, as China will be among the most important investors in infrastructure in the Philippines. The South China Sea is embracing a brand-new landscape.

The Sino-Philippine rapport based on equal footing is supposed to be welcomed by peripheral countries and the whole Asia-Pacific region, as the most worrying powder keg of the area has been quenched. But officials and strategists in Washington, Tokyo and Singapore either kept silent or voiced sour comments. Their mainstream media made wishful predictions as to when Beijing and Manila will go back to confrontation over the sea spats."

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