US' divisiveness and intervention unwelome in South China Sea

President Xi Jinping holds a welcoming ceremony to greet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing on Thursday. Xie Huanchi / Xinhua

THE REMARKS by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during his four-day visit to China, which concluded on Friday, should prompt the United States to reconsider its rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific strategy and its military assertiveness across the world, Beijing News said on Monday:

Unlike Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye, who have paid state visits to the US, Duterte is yet to step on US soil. Instead, his first trip to a country outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations led him to Beijing, where he and his host President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of a number of cooperative agreements in a variety of areas.

According to a joint statement released on Friday, China and the Philippines will address their disputes in the South China Sea through friendly consultations and negotiations by the sovereign states directly concerned, an approach that Beijing has long upheld and that has kept the region under control before US navy vessels disrupted the normal order.

Without mentioning the South China Sea arbitration case initiated by the former Philippine government against China, the statement sheds light upon the economic, political, diplomatic and military cooperation between the two countries, and their shared belief that a peaceful, stable neighborhood is in the interest of both countries.

Duterte's trip is expected to earn him stronger support at home and enhance his reputation as a pragmatic leader who cares for people's livelihood. The down-to-earth cooperative deals disclosed in the statement also show China's willingness and capability to help its neighbors enjoy the dividends of its growth.

Manila needs independent decision-making, not Washington's strategic maneuvering, to resuscitate its economy. That is why the Chinese government stressed the principles of non-interference and non-intervention during Duterte's four-day visit.

The US has a very different foreign policy compared with that of China and the Philippines, and its people enjoy annual average income of at least $50,000, a lot more than that of the latter two. It is thus no surprise the Philippine president complained in Beijing about the difficulties of doing business with the US, and welcomed more investment from China.