Geopolitics
On Philippine Foreign Trade: USA vs China
The world is in the middle of an epic struggle for political influence between the USA and China, but what does this mean for Filipinos, who are trapped in the middle, both in the geographic and political sense? We can take a look at the data on one of the avenues of influence, foreign trade, and find out a little bit more.
GOLD VS GLORY - There is a legitimate debate as to whether economic or military power is more relevant in the long-run. In this photo, the USS Washington enters the Manila bay for a 2010 port visit. Flickr/US Navy Official Imagery, CC BY 2.0)
The conflict between East and West is heating up - US bombers defy the Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea, and US and China Naval Vessels almost collide with each other in the West Philippine Sea.
All this leads me to think how this will impact the Philippines, a tiny country literally and figuratively caught in the middle. Situated in the Pacific Ocean, the island nation has always aligned itself with US interests, but recent developments over the past few years have resulted to Philippine officials taking a more measured approach to Chinese foreign policy.