Disconnect in Duterte’s China policy: Deliberate or just a tangled mess?

MANILA – The mixed messages sent between President Rodrigo Duterte’s conciliatory tone towards China and the barrage of protests from his own foreign and defence ministries over apparent incursions into Philippine-claimed waters have led to a cognitive dissonance in Manila’s disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea.

On Wednesday (May 5), he dismissed a historic legal victory for the Philippines against China over the South China Sea as “just paper” fit for the rubbish bin.

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/disconnect-in-dutertes-china-policy-deliberate-or-just-a-tangled-mess