THE REMARKS by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during his four-day visit to China, which concluded on Friday, should prompt the United States to reconsider its rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific strategy and its military assertiveness across the world, Beijing News said on Monday:

Unlike Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye, who have paid state visits to the US, Duterte is yet to step on US soil. Instead, his first trip to a country outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations led him to Beijing, where he and his host President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of a number of cooperative agreements in a variety of areas.

According to a joint statement released on Friday, China and the Philippines will address their disputes in the South China Sea through friendly consultations and negotiations by the sovereign states directly concerned, an approach that Beijing has long upheld and that has kept the region under control before US navy vessels disrupted the normal order.