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SNS: Asia Letter: Q2 2023 A NEW ERA IN THE PHILIPPINES By Scott Foster
_____ "A world in which the US Congress or the European Commission decides who can produce what high-tech goods and where is not one which the economies of Asia, including Australia, should be prepared to accept." - From "The return of Atlantic industrial policy challenges Asian trade efficiency," Editorial Board, East Asia Forum, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University The Chinese have squandered their opportunity to turn the Philippines into a key station on the Belt & Road through a combination of promising (but not delivering) massive economic assistance and bullying in the South China Sea. Why they did this is beyond the scope of this essay, but it has given the US, Japan, and the Philippines itself a strategic opportunity that cannot and will not be wasted. The government of the Philippines calls the ocean to the west of the archipelago within the nation's Exclusive Economic Zone the West Philippine Sea. Why shouldn't we?
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