The Philippines has taken an interesting role over the past few years in regards to Sino-American diplomacy. It’s a hotly-contested state, in terms of influence, due to its resources, size, and strategic position. For the Chinese, it’s the gateway to the south Pacific, with its vast sea resources and wide array of shipping lanes. For the US, it’s the opposite: the barrier to hold China out of international maritime trade. Historically, this position was flipped. At the first half of the 20th century, the Philippines was the American gateway to East Asian markets, as well as a hub for the American colonial empire to hold some of its vast Pacific fleet. Even since independence, the island nation had a general tendency to side with Washington. The ascension of one man to power, though, has changed that dynamic.
President Rodrigo Duterte, from the PDP-Laban party, took power in 2016, and began a brutal crackdown on what he perceived to be many of the country’s major issues, including drug dealing, Islamist activity in Mindanao, and the country’s foreign policy stance. In doing so, he created a repressive air over the Philippines, and sent the country into a frenzy from which it is now emerging. Whether it is internally stronger or not is still up for debate, and will continue to be for years to come. However, it has undoubtedly become a more powerful international player, managing to pit the US and PRC against each other in a fight for dominance of the island chain. Fighting for markets, resources, and that crucial, crucial strategic positioning, the two powers are set to continue their soft war over Duterte’s Philippines for years to come, strengthening the country’s bargaining power in the international field, as we saw with Pompeo’s recent visit, until it either joins into China’s recent economic expansion, or folds into the American encirclement of the PRC.