Asia in 3 minutes: From a power realignment over South China Sea to powerlessness in Bollywood

Duterte divorces US, hitches his wagon to Beijing

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants to cut the cord with the US and pivot to China and Russia, words that signal a deepening split with his country’s biggest military ally. Duterte made the pronouncement during a state visit to Beijing, several weeks after he told President Barack Obama to “go to hell”. Since taking office in June, the brash 71-year-old leader has repeatedly questioned his nation’s links with the US, echoing the sentiments of many Filipinos who feel they’re being used by their former colonial ruler. “I announce my separation from the US,” Duterte said to a packed room of business leaders in the Chinese capital after meeting President Xi Jinping. Duterte also said he might go to Russian President Vladimir Putin and tell him “there’s three of us against the world”.

What next? State Department spokesman John Kirby described the US as “baffled” by Duterte’s rhetoric and said his comments are “inexplicably at odds with the very close relationship that we have with the Filipino people, as well as the government there, on many different levels, not just from a security perspective”. Duterte’s own government also seemed confused. Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag said, “There is no rush for us to interpret the speech of the president.” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez insisted the Philippines will retain its economic partnership with the US. “We are not stopping trade investment with America,” he said. Duterte’s next stop is Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to try to keep him onside with US-led efforts to contain China.

DiCaprio promises to return 1MDB cash

Leonardo DiCaprio is helping the investigation into Malaysia’s 1MDB embezzlement, which allegedly paid for his film about financial market fraud, The Wolf of Wall Street. The actor contacted the US Justice Department in July just after it filed a lawsuit to seize more than US$1 billion in allegedly ill-gotten assets tied to 1MDB, including rights to the film, DiCaprio’s spokesperson said. The 2013 film was financed by Red Granite Pictures, co-founded by Riza Aziz, stepson of the Malaysian prime minister. DiCaprio was said to be friends with Aziz associate Jho Low, also named in the lawsuit.