Southeast Asian leaders wrestle over China

Manila : Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte faced pushback on Saturday at a regional summit over his efforts to soften Southeast Asian opposition to Chinese expansionism in the contested South China Sea, diplomats said.

Duterte, host of the one-day Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) leaders meeting, lobbied ahead of the event for much closer ties with China despite its sweeping claims to the strategically vital waterway.

China has been turning reefs and shoals in areas of the sea claimed by the Philippines and other nations into artificial islands, and installing military facilities there.

ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the sea, but China insists it has sovereign rights over nearly all of it.

Ahead of the summit Duterte said the Philippines and other nations were helpless to stop the island building, so there was no point discussing it at diplomatic events such as Saturday's summit.

In keeping with Duterte's position, a chairman's statement due to be released after the summit ended would ignore a UN-backed tribunal's ruling last year rejecting China's sweeping claims, according to a draft obtained by AFP.

But diplomats said other ASEAN nations, unhappy with intense Chinese lobbying of the Philippines, sought to toughen up the chairman's statement and there were hot debates on the issue in Manila.

"It can't be seen that ASEAN has totally given in to Chinese pressure," a Southeast Asian diplomat in Manila for the event told AFP.

The Philippines, under previous president Benigno Aquino, had lobbied hard at ASEAN summits for the bloc to voice its strong opposition to the Chinese expansionism, and official statements at those events often reflected that.

Aquino also filed the case at the international tribunal. But the ruling against China came after Duterte took power.