Will Rodrigo Duterte, who won the Philippine presidential election in a landslide on May 9, shift Manila's diplomacy and promote reconciliation with China? Shortly before the president-elect's swearing-in on June 30, there seem to be signs pointing to a rapprochement in future bilateral relations.

In a likely indication of his intention to reshape the strained Sino-Philippine relationship, Duterte on Monday received China's Ambassador to Manila Zhao Jianhua. Zhao was among the first three foreign envoys Duterte met.

One day before the meeting, the president-elect told reporters that he hoped to develop friendly relations with China and repeated an election pledge to hold direct talks with Beijing over the South China Sea disputes. 

The Sino-Philippine relationship has sharply worsened during the six-year rule of President Benigno Aquino III. Steering away from a balanced strategy between China and the US, Aquino has tightly hitched the Philippines to the US' chariot to contain China and intensify tensions in the South China Sea, leaving Duterte to pick up the pieces of the diplomatic mess. 

It's likely that Duterte will make a shift in Philippine diplomacy. Duterte has emphasized that international arbitration is of little help in addressing the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Instead, he may lean toward bilateral talks with China to alleviate tensions and approach China with an emphasis on economic cooperation and development.

The Philippines, despite maintaining a moderate growth rate in recent years, has been plagued by myriad problems, including low governance efficiency, backward infrastructure, high unemployment rates and corruption.

The country is facing an urgent task to allow the grass roots to benefit from development. Instead of being locked into diplomatic spats with China, economic cooperation could help boost development in the Philippines.

It's not a wise choice to continue the diplomatic spat and let it obscure economic cooperation. In fact, China-invested businesses in the Philippines have already been affected by the conflict. Aquino's lopsided diplomacy strained bilateral ties with China, yet brought no concrete benefit to his country. China has long advocated that the route to solving territorial disputes in the South China Sea is through negotiation, and it remains open to this till today. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on many occasions has urged Manila to return to the right track of dialogue and negotiations. The positive stance over the China-Philippine relationship by Duterte is welcome. 

No matter who the Philippines' president is, it's impossible for the country to totally abandon US defensive support. But one-sided attachment with the US will only hurt the country in the long-run.