Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte conveyed to his countrymen that he expected China to be fair on the South China Sea dispute and that they should accept Beijing as a good neighbor. The Duterte administration’s appeasement policy is based on a quid pro quo with China and would result in the unraveling of his predecessor's balancing policy on China’s maritime expansion in the South China Sea. Crisis in the appeasement policy on China? On 15 August, Duterte openly criticized China for its island-building activities and called on it to temper its behavior in the South China Sea. As one Chinese pundit observes: "As for China, the periodic swing of Sino-Philippine relations means China should remain cautiously optimistic.

Source: Philippine Star September 22, 2018 04:31 UTC