From appeasement to soft balancing

This chapter examines the shift in Philippine policy on China under the Duterte Administration from appeasement to soft balancing. Since he became president in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has adopted an appeasement policy vis-à-vis China’s expansive design in the South China Sea. Duterte is widely regarded has having distanced the Philippines from the U.S., its long-standing treaty ally and gravitated toward China. However, this paper argues that the Duterte administration’s current objective is to restrain Chinese aggressive behavior in the South China Sea by maintaining its alliance with the U.S., fostering a security partnership with Japan and pursuing a more active participation in ASEAN.