Why younger Filipinos are warming to China despite maritime tensions

Inside a car wash lounge in the southern Philippine city of Davao, Shenilane Formento scrolls through messages on her Chinese-made Oppo phone as she waits for a customer to pay.

Formento, 29, has worked as a cashier for about a year. She follows developments in the South China Sea through news reports shared on her social media feeds, including frequent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese forces in the disputed waters.

While she found such incidents “disappointing”, she ultimately thought better of Beijing than Washington, which she blamed for the high energy prices affecting the Philippines and the rest of the world.

“That’s why I prefer China to the United States. Just look at what is happening … because of the US-Iran war – fuel prices are skyrocketing,” she said.