How Duterte Turned the Philippines Into China's New Play Thing

Reuters
February 23, 2020 Topic: Security Region: Asia Tags: Rodgrigo DutertePhilippinesChinaXi JingpingGeopolitics

How Duterte Turned the Philippines Into China's New Play Thing

Rodrigo Duterte, in pursuit of development dollars, has put his country's national security in jeopardy. In fact, Duterte's first major foreign policy decision, barely a month into office, was to effectively dump the Philippines’ historic legal warfare victory against China.

 

 Richard Javad Heydarian is a Manila-based academic and author. His forthcoming book is The Indo-Pacific Age: US, China and the New Global Struggle for Mastery.