Description
Territorial tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea have deteriorated since the twenty-first century. The international arbitration (2013-2016) that Manila initiated against Beijing demonstrates that in a bilateral asymmetry determined by power disparities, the weaker have limited opportunities to balance the stronger. This research identified two factors backing Manila’s less submissive attitudes towards Beijing: the US engagement and its strengthened alliance with Manila, and the growing leverage of international law. It combines some aspects of Asian-driven Asymmetry and Western-centric Balance-of-Power theories and takes in political and legal perspectives to design an “asymmetric balancing” theoretical model for unravelling Sino-Filipino interactions. This new model contributes to explaining the complexity of state interactions guided by multiple rules: regional norms, external power’s impacts, and institutional constraints. It diversifies theoretical and disciplinary lenses, avoiding the partialities and insufficiencies of using a single theory or disciplinary approach. It also promotes critical thinking of existing structural theories and the significance of international law in international relations. It argues that US superpower penetration and international law have generated power-/legal-balancing effects, in line with anarchy, on Sino-Filipino relations, facilitating a hybrid asymmetric bilateral relationship presenting not only hierarchic but also some anarchic features.
