Interesting developments, dear readers, around what is known in these parts as the South China Sea, and we don’t just mean the latest typhoon. The new President of the Philippines visited Beijing with a massive business delegation and announced that his country has pivoted from the US to China, and will resolve the watery issue through bilateral talks.
There are all sorts of angles to this, and it is important to phrase it all delicately. But Beijing-Davao relations have clearly been doing well for some time. The next question is how the Philippine military feels about it. They have been known on occasion to make their views known, the fall of Marcos in 1986 being just one example. Julian Assange has just had his internet access cut off, which means that unfortunately, we may not see anything resulting from Russian hacks of Manila servers, providing further clarity, for a while.
In other news, Trump now looks certain to lose, which also has a South China Sea angle to it, in that Hillary has been known to call that stretch of water by another name, the West Philippines Sea. And as to the economy – the reported GDP for Q3 was announced at 6.7%, which is the new magic number, so what a surprise. How much of that growth relates to housing bubbles is a good question. Bank loans on property purchases are going through the roof. One thing the world ain’t is boring. Enjoy the weekend!