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Philippines should stay neutral or risk being ‘crushed’ amid US-China tensions, experts warn
- With US-China rivalry playing out in the South China Sea, conflict could escalate if littoral states like the Philippines take sides, observers note
- Manila and Beijing can work together to ‘manage’ South China Sea tensions, as relations are still ‘predominantly warm and cordial’
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The Philippines should remain neutral or run the risk of being “crushed” by the ongoing Sino-US rivalry, experts have said, while urging Manila to work with Beijing to manage tensions in the South China Sea.
During a three-hour media forum on Monday convened by the Manila-based Integrated Development Studies Institute (IDSI) with the backing of other think tanks such as the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), five international relations experts spoke on managing China-Philippine relations in the light of the “great power conflict” between Beijing and Washington.
“If there is a superpower that is in decline and that is the United States, and another great power that is in ascendance which is China, then it is almost inevitable for … the superpower to suppress the ascendant great power,” said Dr Melissa Loja, a Filipino international maritime law expert, during the panel discussion held in Makati City in Metro Manila.
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“And therefore, for the Philippines to stand in the way of either the US or China, then there is a sure chance that the Philippines [will] be crushed in the process.”
Loja, a senior research fellow at the IDSI, called for the Philippines to “maintain its neutrality” to avoid such a fate.
Professor Hu Bo, director of the SCSPI and the Centrer for Maritime Strategy Studies of Peking University, noted part of the US-China conflict was playing out in the South China Sea.
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