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This essay is a preliminary study of the Philippines' foreign policy towards China under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. It will examine China's economic statecraft as the sender country towards the Philippines as the target country. The ultimate goal of China's economic policies is to foster a submissive response from the Philippines over their territorial disputes in the South China Sea. This paper applies the theoretical model proposed by Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Norrin M. Ripsman (2008 and 2013) to study the political theory of economic statecraft, as applied by the sender and target countries. Blanchard and Ripsman argue that domestic factors serve as significant intervening variables in the strategy of the target country's leaders towards the sender country. Thus, the target country's leaders will view the sender country's economic sanctions or economic inducements differently, depending on the domestic socioeconomic situation. By looking at the Duterte administration in the Philippines, this paper intends to expand upon the research agenda of the theory on economic statecraft and international relations. It will shine a light on the puzzling flip-flop of the Philippines' foreign policy strategy. It shows that Blanchard and Ripsman's "stateness" conditionalist approach provides a plausible explanation of the Filipino response to China's economic statecraft. Instead of relying on conventional neo-realist, economic liberalist, or regime-type conditionalist arguments, this paper will focus on the control of leaders over the decision-making environment. However, it does acknowledge that stateness does not fully explain the Philippines' strategic adjustment towards China, as international variables could have affected the Philippines' policy response to China's economic statecraft. This paper, therefore, argues that domestic and international factors play vital roles in affecting the dynamics in the target state and the effectiveness of the sender state's economic statecraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the Philippines has experienced an escalation of anti-Chinese sentiment due to many factors, founded and unfounded. The growing presence of illegal immigrants and crimes associated with them; an increase in the number of Chinese workers, who are perceived as competing with Filipino workers; an increase in Chinese businesses, especially in retail, some operating without permits; the continuing dispute between China and the Philippines over the islands in the West Philippine Sea; President Rodrigo Duterte's China pivot policy and what has been deemed as favoring China to the detriment of the Philippines. This confluence of events has served to worsen the image of China. The COVID-19 pandemic and the way the government responded to it worsened the sinophobia directed at anyone considered "Chinese," including Filipinos of Chinese ancestry. This paper explores the racism vented against the Chinese and how the local Chinese-Filipino community has responded with positive action to help mitigate the anti-Chinese wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the asymmetric dilemma facing the Philippines and China in the South China Sea tensions. Among American East Asian allies, the Philippines seems to stand on the frontline between two rival powers, the United States and China. Since the US declared its Pivot to Asia policy, the Philippines' foreign policy towards China has become assertive and sometimes appears reckless with some military adventures against Chinese maritime patrols and naval ships, which also further forced China to take a tougher foreign policy against the Philippines. Considering the distinctive asymmetric indicators between China and the Philippines based on military forces, economic capacity, territorial size, and population, the aggressive policy behaviors that the Philippines and China have been displaying against each other cast an inquiry on what drives the two countries into head-to-head collision. While China as the larger power vis-à-vis the Philippines as the smaller power in the relationship has aimed for control and domination of their disputed territory, the Philippines' drastic defiance has also led to China's irritation and possible frustration. Furthermore, the US' renewed attention to Asia has caused shifts of asymmetric bilateral dilemma to triangular entanglement between the US-China-Philippines. It is vital therefore to pay attention to the asymmetric interaction of states and their varying views in order to find possible solutions to the SCS tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries are increasingly facilitating migration as a way of generating remittances for the home economy. The Philippines serves as a paradigmatic example, inaugurating a labour export scheme in 1973 that has grown each year and resulted in nearly 25 per cent of the labour force working abroad. The institutionalization of this labour export policy, along with changes in citizenship and voting laws, has led to the increasing deterritorialization of the Philippines state, with concomitant implications for democracy and democratization. This deterritorialization presents both opportunities and challenges for the state. Among them are the possibility of securing sustained remittances and the necessity of securing democratic legitimacy from a globalized polity. This paper traces the evolution of this labour export policy and analyzes the effects of state discursive strategies designed to secure democratic legitimacy. To further this analysis I present the results of a survey conducted among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong (n=691). The responses indicate the discursive strategy of 'national heroes' has been effective in that majorities of OFWs view themselves as 'heroes of the nation.' However, OFWs also view themselves as making sacrifices for the nation and have concerns about government commitments to protect the rights and interests of OFWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on twenty in-depth interviews conducted with Filipino migrants living and working in mainland China, I aim to shed light at their lived experiences. I primarily focus on the emotions that constitute their essential part, and the ways migrants choose to deal with them. As a result, I argue that migration systems – responsible either for emigration or immigration – by way of specific regulations, their implementation, as well as the culture surrounding mobility, utilise migrants' emotions to manage and control this population. In order to better understand these measures and their consequences, I refer to the concept of 'affective governmentality'. Furthermore, I show how migrants' affective experiences become a source of hierarchies, but at the same time, a basis for the emergence of strong community ties and the establishment of 'emotional community'. I argue that, despite the strict regulations and practices which aim at maintaining people's relationship with the Philippines and discouraging them from settling down in China, migrants are still able to form a sense of rootedness. While experiencing vulnerability and being subjected to exploitation and discrimination, they still remain active agents who use emotions as their own resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has, without challenge, enjoyed and exercised certain rights in the South China Sea throughout recorded history. Those rights do not derive from the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; rather, they exist under customary international law and commonly known as 'historic rights'. Recent interpretations related to those rights, however, remain highly controversial, which can be typically seen from the South China Sea Arbitration Case initiated by the Philippines against China. This article gives a case-by-case study based on China's diplomatic positions on historic rights and compares them with certain international practice from an academic perspective; and then it examines the possible content and nature of historic-related rights enjoyed by China in the South China Sea and evaluates its legal implications on the dispute settlement approach in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]