President Joko Widodo says he wants to keep this sprawling archipelago out of an intensifying great-power conflict in the South China Sea while he tries to revitalize ambitious economic plans that so far have fallen short.

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.

Beijing could employ controversial measures to control the disputed airspace over the South China Sea, according to a leading expert with close ties to the Chinese government, as it seeks new ways to assert its authority in the contested region.

Duterte’s abrupt diplomatic and military shift from Washington heartens Beijing, threatens U.S. alliance.

The Chinese position of resolving disputes with a dual-track approach has been accepted by ASEAN countries. The two sides have important common understanding on jointly maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea, and notions that China is trying to split ASEAN and that China is seeking hegemony in the South China Sea have effectively been deflated.

China’s alleged militarization of the South China Sea isn’t supported by the facts, and the US definition of ‘militarization’ defies both common sense and international practice.

According to one diplomatic source, Duterte would meet both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. It was not immediately clear who the business delegation would meet in China and what would be discussed.

Japan is "playing with fire" with plans to step up activity in the contested South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States, China's Defence Ministry said on Thursday, warning it would not sit watching from the sidelines.