washington <u+2014> when the philippines appeared to jilt its old ally the united states in favor of china this week, it repudiated not only president obama and his <u+201c>pivot<u+201d> to asia, but also hillary clinton , who made reaching out to the region her signature project as his secretary of state. the white house said on friday that it was troubled by the statements made by president rodrigo duterte during a visit to beijing, in which he announced a <u+201c>separation<u+201d> of the philippines from the united states , a treaty ally, and said it was <u+201c>time to say goodbye, my friend.<u+201d> more than anything, the administration appears baffled by mr. duterte. he is a flamboyant figure, given to volcanic outbursts. on friday, his own trade minister tried to pull back much of what his boss had said. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve dubbed that person the filipino mike pence,<u+201d> joked the white house press secretary, josh earnest, suggesting that mr. duterte was a filipino donald j. trump. later in the day, mr. duterte himself insisted that by <u+201c>separation<u+201d> he meant only that the philippines planned to be more independent of the united states. mrs. clinton has not addressed the turmoil between manila and washington since last month, when she said mr. obama was right to cancel a meeting with mr. duterte after he had unleashed a profanity-laden diatribe against mr. obama. but a senior official in the clinton campaign said she shared the white house<u+2019>s concerns about the philippine leader<u+2019>s latest statements. if anything, a rift would be even more personal for mrs. clinton than for mr. obama. as secretary of state, she laid the groundwork for the president<u+2019>s focus on asia and, in particular, his reassertion of america<u+2019>s presence in southeast asia. in 2011, she stood on the deck of a navy warship in manila bay to dramatize support for an ally then entangled in territorial disputes with china over reefs and islands in the south china sea. a year earlier, mrs. clinton thrust the united states into this long-running conflict, saying the united states had a stake in seeing these disputes resolved in a way that guaranteed american ships freedom of navigation through the south china sea<u+2019>s busy shipping lanes. it was one of her first big initiatives as secretary of state. she kept raising it with the chinese throughout her time at the state department, and she said later that she viewed the south china sea as a litmus test in a broader geopolitical rivalry between the united states and china. <u+201c>they have the right to assert themselves,<u+201d> mrs. clinton said in a closed-door speech to executives from goldman sachs in 2013, which was published by wikileaks. <u+201c>but if nobody<u+2019>s there to push back to create a balance, then they<u+2019>re going to have a chokehold on the sea lanes and also on the countries that border the south china sea.<u+201d> on friday, the united states dispatched a destroyer, the decatur, into waters claimed by china to assert the freedom of navigation. the action, which drew a warning from chinese warships and a rebuke from the chinese defense ministry, was not related to mr. duterte<u+2019>s statements, a senior administration official said. but it was an illustration of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s point, and a reminder of how the south china sea could erupt into conflict. the white house is also sending a senior diplomat <u+2014> daniel russel, assistant secretary of state for east asian affairs <u+2014> to manila this weekend to seek clarification of the philippine government<u+2019>s position. mr. obama has generally sought to play down the rift, in part because mr. duterte is so erratic that it is not clear he will able to follow through on his threats. the united states remains enormously popular among filipinos. mr. duterte<u+2019>s hostility is <u+201c>at odds with the warm relationship between the citizens of our two countries,<u+201d> mr. earnest said. privately, though, administration officials worry that mr. duterte could suspend american access to philippine military bases, which would constrain the united states military presence in the region. he has already talked about ending joint exercises for american and philippine troops. the tensions with the philippines could escalate further. on capitol hill, some are agitating to withhold aid from the philippine police because of hundreds of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers. invoking the so-called leahy law, which prohibits military aid to foreign units that routinely violate human rights, could provoke an even more sulfurous reaction from mr. duterte. china is likely to provide lucrative economic inducements to the philippines, and could make them contingent on further weakening its links with the united states. some former officials worry that china is playing divide-and-conquer in the region, calculating that if it can peel the philippines away from the united states, malaysia and vietnam will follow. <u+201c>the real destructiveness of this is signaling to the region that the oldest american ally can potentially be snared or lured into nonaligned status,<u+201d> jeffrey a. bader, a former china adviser to mr. obama, said. <u+201c>that is a terribly destructive signal to malaysia, to vietnam, to thailand, to singapore, to indonesia,<u+201d> he added. <u+201c>it has to send a signal to other countries about the effectiveness of china<u+2019>s soft power.<u+201d> as part of his charm offensive with beijing, mr. duterte said he would brush aside a ruling in july by an international tribunal in the hague that found in favor of the philippines in its territorial disputes with china. he said manila would enter into direct negotiations with beijing over the south china sea. though the white house welcomed that news as potentially reducing the risk of a military clash in the south china sea, it could also undercut the administration<u+2019>s policy, which is to encourage the parties to abide by international law. china has long sought direct talks with its neighbors; american officials worry that this would enable china to bully them. mrs. clinton is likely to keep a low profile on this issue in the final weeks of the campaign. for one, a senior aide said, she has had no contact with mr. duterte or the people around him, and hence no way of assessing his motives. but the official said she remained as committed as ever to the principle of freedom of navigation and lawful commerce in the south china sea. in her remarks to goldman sachs executives in 2013, mrs. clinton recalled having contentious discussions with chinese officials over their broad <u+2014> and in her view, spurious <u+2014> claims to the south china sea. at one point, she told them that, using their rationale, the united states could claim the pacific ocean from california all the way to the philippines. <u+201c>we liberated it,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>we defended it.<u+201d> mrs. clinton also expressed sympathy for the philippines in its clash with china over one of the disputed territories, scarborough shoal <u+2014> a dispute that mr. duterte now seems ready to forget. <u+201c>why are they intent upon picking this fight and asserting this at this time?<u+201d> mrs. clinton said to the group. <u+201c>why are they slamming into filipino fishing vessels? you know, a poor country that is just desperately trying to get its growth rate up and making some progress in doing that. so it bears watching, and obviously it matters to all of us.<u+201d> a version of this article appears in print on october 22, 2016, on page a3 of the new york edition with the headline: philippines <u+2018>separation<u+2019> from u.s. jilts clinton, too. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
philippines <u+2018>separation<u+2019> from u.s. jilts hillary clinton, too
mark landler