When in July 2016 new Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte asked the American ambassador to Manila for help over Scarborough Shoal, he was told that the United States would not go to war over a fishing reef. So, after an initial bout of patriotic bluster, Duterte chose to cut a deal. He flew to the Chinese capital with a planeload of businessmen, signed deals for China to build infrastructure throughout the poorer part of his country, and declared that the future lay not with the United States but with China.
