The Philippine president’s China visit revealed that countries in the region are thirsty for stability, solidarity and common development, and should be eager to eliminate the various misgivings regarding the South China Sea. Countries in and outside the area should cherish the positive effects of the visit and jointly preserve peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s emerging foreign policy is a cocktail of reckless rhetoric and shrewd strategic calculus. The Duterte administration has made it clear that bilateral relations with America are no longer as special as before; it is simply interested in having beneficial relations with all superpowers without any preferential treatment.

The rise and posture of the Philippines president is not an unpredictable eruption but the natural evolution of a changing global environment, and the result will be a more balanced and safer regional order.

Track II diplomacy’s results remain mixed, but it takes only one successful attempt to provide concrete and specific agenda items for formal talks. It is within this lens that the Ramos-Fu August 2016 meeting in Hong Kong could be appreciated.

Three months ago, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to the resources in the West Philippine Sea (also known as the South China Sea), and thus that the Philippines has exclusive rights to the territory. China rejected the ruling, and an icy chill overcame the once-friendly bilateral relationship. It is time to bring back some warmth.

To solve the misperceptions the Philippines and China have toward the other’s intentions in the South China Sea, both sides should be more open to understanding the rationale of each other’s actions and behavior, commit to non-militarization of the disputed areas while refraining from using confrontational rhetoric, and not force each other’s red lines in public so as to avoid either party from losing face.

Has the Arbitral Tribunal decision on the South China Sea been misconstrued by main stream U.S. media? Don M. Tow explores the legality of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Ruling, as well as the geopolitical motivations behind it, concluding that the U.S. is responsible for creating unnecessary conflicts with China and destabilizing peace in Asia, as well as the whole world.

While the U.S. calls for respect of the given ruling under the Law of the Sea Convention, of which the U.S. is not a signatory, none of the predicted responses from China and the Philippines have come true. On the contrary, both have opted for ‘strategic restraint,’ choosing to use dialogue in order to find common ground.

The United States and China perceive the South China Sea issue in starkly different terms.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he expects talks with China on their South China Sea dispute within a year and he would not raise an international ruling rejecting China's claims there when he attends a regional summit next month.