Santos, Kyra Jewel J.

AB Foreign Service & FS302

International Political Economy
Sir. Jumel G. Estrañero
March 5, 2018
An Ally or An Nemesis: The Relationship of the Philippines to United States and China
In this world full of greediness of power and wealth, you wouldn’t know who trust and who
will be there in time of need. Another state can be your ally and at the same time they can also
be your nemesis.
President Rodrigo Duterte, have different strategic ways to deal with other nations like
People’s Republic of China and United States. President Duterte is changing his foreign policy that is
less reliant on the United States, favoring one that prioritizes closer relations with China instead. Under
Aquino, the Philippines had forged closer military ties with the United States to deal with the China threat.
But Rodrigo Duterte, elected President in 2016, cast doubt on that strategy. He also sought to heal
relations with China rather than inflame them by pressing the tribunal's ruling.

The Philippines is working to diversify its security interests away from a remarkable reliance
on the United States. To this end, the Philippines is developing stronger security ties with its
ASEAN partners to address internal security concerns and it is establishing a bilateral relationship
with China to address security concerns over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Recently, Philippines has been rapidly improving relations and cooperating with China on
various issues, developing a much stronger and stable ties with the country. However, relations
between the two countries have suffered due to the worsening South China Sea dispute. South
China Sea is a major shipping route and home to fishing grounds that supply the livelihoods of
people across the region. China has backed its extensive claims with island-building and naval
patrols. The US says it does not take sides in territorial disputes but has sent military ships and
planes near disputed islands, calling them "freedom of navigation" operations to ensure access
to key shipping and air routes.
In the context of the South China Sea Disputes, the Philippines and China are now suffering a
security dilemma, a tragic situation that creates enmity rather than amity in their relations. With
their security dilemma, the Philippines and China are presently trapped in a “guessing
game” situation, speculating on each other’s strategic intention. Finding ways to ameliorate this
security dilemma is essential for both countries to promote cooperation rather than competition
in their overall relationship.
Chinese–U.S. relations, or Sino-American relations, refer to international relations between
the United States of America and China. U.S hegemony has lasted for roughly 73 years, now the
rising power of China is being a threat to U.S. How can the U.S manage a rising china? This
relationship has been very shaky ever since the nations have been dealing with each other. First,
they were on good terms in the late seventeen hundred, they trade with each other quite often,
and American businessmen went over to start businesses in China, which helped out the
economy a lot. Currently, China and the United States have joint political, economic, and security
interests, including but not limited to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, although there are
unresolved concerns relating to the role of democracy in government in China and human
rights in both respective countries. China is the largest foreign creditor of the United States. The
two countries remain in dispute over territorial issues in the South China Sea.
As of April 2017, ongoing maritime disputes in the South China Sea have strained relations
between the two. America has conducted freedom of navigation patrols in the region to
underscore the US' position that the artificial islands constructed by China. However, not only
China and United States has a desire in South China Sea. The South China Sea disputes involve
both island and maritime claims among several sovereign states within the region, namely
Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The South China Sea dispute is a complex issue. It involves several claimants with their own
complicated arguments that defend their respective causes. The UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea prescribes a country’s jurisdiction over the territorial sovereignty of a State’s extended
boundary of 12 nautical miles territorial seas and its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone
from their respective continental shelves. In the case of the South China Sea, there is an obvious
overlapping territorial jurisdiction, which makes it a difficult to determine any definitive and
generally acceptable answer to territorial sovereignty.
Philippines should try to make new potential allies for the Philippines, there is Russia. Russia-
Philippines relationships, Russian military technology to the Philippine navy and to lay the
groundwork for joint exercises with the Philippine military. Russia’s naval deployment was well
received in Manila, as it builds closely on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s calls
for strengthened security links with Moscow. As the Philippine economy has grown quickly in
recent years, Russian business leaders see opportunities for a better trade partnership with
Manila. The close interaction between the leadership styles of Duterte and Russia’s Vladimir
Putin, along with Russia’s willingness to export sophisticated weaponry to the Philippines, have
also strengthened forecasts for a Moscow-Manila security partnership.

For the next ten years, it would be a guessing game, who would know who is the more
powerful in that period but if this continues there might be an outbreaking war. The
contemporary economic or political geography, most likely countries don’t want to start another
world war. War charge a lot of money, many infrastructures will be destroyed and vanished
because of war, and it will be a large damage to each state. War is equivalent to destructions,
states don’t want to lose money instead they want to gain. Therefore, it must be settled by
multilateral diplomacy to avoid such things.
 It is alarming that the area is becoming a crisis, with potentially serious global consequences. If
this dispute continues there might be a war between the sovereign states who is involve in the
South China Sea dispute. If this continues Philippines should be independent, President may
continue engaging with other states, but he should not get rid of the doubt and think of new
strategic ways and make new foreign policies to overcome the disputes. We should prioritize our
national interest before other things, improve our economy and make our state powerful.
Altogether, with the help of our government we can make this through and gain what is supposed
to be ours.