Kelfuma
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Duterte says 'goodbye' to US ties in Beijing | News | GMA News Online
This is a major geopolitical shift.
BEIJING, China - President Rodrigo Duterte said it was "time to say goodbye" to the US during a visit to China on Wednesday, as the combative leader reconfigures his country's diplomatic alliances.
Duterte is in China for a four-day trip that is expected to confirm his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing's sphere of influence.
During a speech addressing the Filipino community in Beijing, the firebrand president said the Philippines had gained little from its long alliance with the US, its former colonial ruler.
"Your stay in my country was for your own benefit. So time to say goodbye, my friend," he said, as if addressing the US.
"I will not go to America anymore. I will just be insulted there," he added, before once again referring to US President Barack Obama as a "son of a whore".
Duterte, who took office in late June, said he was fed up with the Philippines' foreign policy being dictated by a Western agenda.
"What kept us from China was not our own making. I will charter a new course," he said.
This is a major geopolitical shift.