Vietnam and the Philippines, which have long-standing territorial disputes in the South China Sea, are forming a strategic partnership. Worried over the rise of China and, in particular, Beijing’s increasingly belligerent actions in pursuit of its own territorial claims, Hanoi and Manila are banding together.
The two rivals are moving beyond symbolic displays of unity—sports matches on disputed islands—and on to substantive cooperation: joint naval exercises and patrols as well as new trade initiatives. Neither country wants to see China extend control over the entirety of the South China Sea, which seems to be its aim. Both Vietnam and the Philippines have come to realize that China poses a greater threat to each than they do to each other.
That Manila and Hanoi are choosing to balance rather than bandwagon may come as somewhat of a surprise to Beijing, which offers the promise of access to its market of 1.3 billion consumers and has lots of cash to throw around. In any case, the thinking in Zhongnanhai seems to go, a Sino-centric Asian order is the natural Asian order. As China’s former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi may regret asserting so publicly back in 2010, “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that’s just a fact.”
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