Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

China and its neighboring Southeast Asian countries have territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Actually, those disputes, in the context of an international community featuring cooperation and competition, are not a big deal.

As long as the stakeholders can eye long-term interests, disputes, no matter how complicated they are, can be addressed or at least kept under control without deflecting the mainstream of cooperation and development in this region.

In recent years, the Philippines is running counter to this. The country, which has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, has the nerve to hype up these disputes incessantly.

It stirred up the Huangyan dispute, thrust the topic of South China Sea into the ASEAN Summit, and submitted the disputes to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for arbitration.

By attempting to expand and internationalize its disputes with China, the Philippines is going too far. When the Philippines and the US concluded their first round of negotiation of increasing the US troop presence in the Philippines, the country stepped much closer to the edge.

The Philippines keeps stressing that the country will not allow the US to re-establish military bases on its land, but based on the Philippines' actions in recent years during the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, a greater US troop presence in the Philippines has become a foregone conclusion.

What remains unknown is how and to what extent the two countries will upgrade their military cooperation.

The Philippines' aggressive actions are an intensive reflection of its president, Benigno Aquino III's own personality, but not in conformity with the country's overall interests. Such actions show not only the country's ignorance of the complexity of the South China Sea issue, but the recklessness of orienting its entire foreign policy toward resolving territorial disputes.

Territorial disputes, by the very nature a zero-sum game, cannot be addressed by simple means, because political, economic and security issues are also deeply involved.

The Philippines and the US have their own calculations. But their intention is not to start a war with China, because the Philippines clearly knows the consequences, while the US will never engage in a direct conflict with China for the sake of other countries.

Manila is planning a "smokeless war" by taking advantage of the US' strength to freeze out China, while the US, without any intention of easing the tension in the region, is using the Philippines to disintegrate China's relationship with its neighbors and acquire more competitive advantages to contain China.

Although China reiterates its standpoint of maintaining a peaceful regional environment, it is also preparing to counterattack out of strategic considerations, or when it is forced to do so.

China has been resorting to diverse means to deal with the disputes over the Nansha Islands and Diaoyu Islands. If the military cooperation between the US and the Philippines is leaving less strategic space and policy options for China, it will be more likely to impose such counterattacks.

In that case, the US will find itself being dragged by the Philippines to the brink of a war, while the Philippines, facing a much stronger neighbor, will lose its interests in the South China Sea.

China will never be the biggest victim of a conflict. Stakeholders in the South China Sea need an inclusive dialogue without any interference from external forces. It is the best result if the disputes can be addressed properly. If not, it is better to put them aside.

Residing in the most energetic and prospering region in the world, they have millions of  reasons to cooperate instead of going to the dead end of territorial disputes.

The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of International Relations, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn