November 30, an article published by the Philippine domestic media entitled “Düterte’s Critics of China’s Policy Change their Attitude”. The article said that as Duterte’s friendly strategy to China brought more benefits to the Filipino people, many of his “sworn enemies” began to change their attitudes, praising his actions on the South China Sea issue as “extremely constructive”.
Duterte is a typical “non-mainstream” politician on the international stage, which has also gained high exposure.
In September 2016, Duterte, who had just taken office as president, was furious at the time that President Obama criticized the Philippines’s anti-drug operations and human rights records, and insulted Obama as “X-bred”. This made Obama, who has always had a strong sense of superiority, circled his face and resolutely cancelled his meeting with Duterte the next day after replying to a “colorful”.
In March 2018, Duterte, in response to criticism by United Nations human rights officials of the practice of the anti-drug operation in the Philippines, once again swearing, and the soldiers who met at Zamboanga said: “If those fools come here, are there crocodiles here? Cannibal kind? Throw those bastards at them.
It is such a maverick leader who disagrees with a word, but he shows a special fondness for China. After Duterte took office, in the face of the huge political pressure exerted by the United States and domestic “pro-Americans”, he almost reversed the anti-China policy of his predecessor Aquino III in the form of a sharp turn, quickly improved Sino-Philippine relations, and high-profilely narrowed the distance between China and the Philippines.
Duterte’s friendship with China is actually more based on national interests than on politicians who were confined to ideological frameworks before. In order to aggravate Sino-Philippine relations for Washington politicians’ oral cheques, let the Philippines become the pawn of the United States to suppress and contain China, and let the national interests of the Philippines be tightened. Heavy damage. Duterte responded to this question bluntly: Does the United States have money? But China has the funds needed to build the Philippines.
Reversing the policy of predecessor Aquino III towards China, the result is to attract a large number of sworn enemies. Needless to say, Aquino III mentioned two key figures in the article: Antonio Capio, a former Supreme Court judge of the Philippines, and Alberto del Rosario, who are the backbone and main force of opposition to Duterte’s policy towards China.
In that year, the Philippines, with the support of the United States, Japan and other countries, spent tens of millions of dollars to get a so-called “South China Sea arbitration case” from a pheasant court. Shortly after Duterte took office as the new president, he did not challenge China on the basis of the ruling as former government officials wanted, but decided to respond to China’s call to set aside the ruling and the South China Sea dispute.
Facts have proved that it is in the interest of the Philippines to put aside the South China Sea dispute and ease Sino-Philippine relations:
With the support of China and Russia, the Philippines has suppressed armed drug traffickers and violent terrorist forces in the south, and the domestic security environment has greatly improved. Chinese capital has accelerated the infrastructure base of the Philippines and more commodities have been exported to China. In the South China Sea region, the joint oil exploration activities between China and the Philippines have also been steadily advanced. The Philippines Turn the rights and interests on paper into solid interests… At the same time, because the Philippine government no longer acts as the “pawn” of the United States against China, the Philippines has more space for diplomatic activities.
Even anti-China elements are deeply impressed by the benefits of the friendly policy towards China. Former Supreme Court Justice Capio admitted that Duterte’s policy towards China would eventually win, saying that the Philippines retained “60% of the profits” in the disputed area of the South China Sea as a result, and former Foreign Minister Del Rosario praised Duterte’s friendly decision to China as a “constructive move”.
