Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chinese president Xi Jinping speaks at the eighth Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in the western Indian state of Goa on Sunday. Even so, Glaser said Beijing would be celebrating how the Philippines’ leader had publicly spurned the country’s long-term ally. The Chinese believe the US has emboldened Manila to challenge China and has been instrumental in pulling the US into South China Sea issues. Last week he instructed the country’s navy to halt joint patrols of the South China Sea with the US in order to avoid “any Philippine action that China might deem hostile”. In an interview last week with al-Jazeera, Duterte said that during his visit he would fight to maintain islands in the South China Sea.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2016 05:04 UTC