Sino File | Four reasons Duterte will have to change tune on China and U.S.

Even in the capricious world of diplomacy, few would have expected such a dramatic diplomatic policy shift as that signalled by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte when he announced Manila was deserting Washington for Beijing.

During his recent high-profile visit to China, the outspoken new leader declared that he had realigned himself with China’s “ideological flow” and announced the Philippines’ economic and military “separation” from Washington.

Beijing is eager to draw the Philippines into its camp and has been intensifying its diplomacy in an escalating rivalry with Washington for regional influence and supremacy.

Duterte’s words do not only signal an official breaking of the ice between the two countries following the Hague court ruling that favoured Manila in its dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.

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They also break the diplomatic isolation facing Beijing, whose maritime claims have brought it into dispute with various other neighbours.