Peace Over Power: Pax Aseana Sinica In Philippine Foreign Policy – OpEd

Key Takeaways:

• The article proposes “Pax Aseana Sinica” as a third-way security paradigm for the Asia Pacific that transcends the binary of U.S.-led Pax Silica and China-led Pax Sinica by rooting regional order in ASEAN principles of amity and cooperation and China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
• For the Philippines, this approach means prioritizing ASEAN centrality, engaging China constructively through institutions such as the ASEAN–China Centre, defending sovereign rights without coercion, and maintaining the U.S. alliance while avoiding subordination to either great power.
• Practical cooperation in economic, educational, cultural, tourism, and media domains is presented as integral to security, with the Philippines (as 2026 ASEAN Chair) positioned to help embed China’s initiatives within a multilateral ASEAN framework that favors dialogue, restraint, and strategic autonomy over confrontation.

In the rapidly evolving Asia Pacific security order, the Philippines confronts a profound strategic dilemma. The South China Sea remains contested, U.S.–China rivalry intensifies, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) struggles to assert its centrality. 

Yet recent developments such as the reaffirmation of ASEAN–China cooperation during the 30 July 2026 meeting between ASEAN–China Centre (ACC) Secretary General Zhang Lizhong and Philippine Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz demonstrate that Southeast Asia has the capacity to shape its own future. 

The ASEAN–China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, now in its fifth year, and the ACC’s expanding role in economic, cultural, educational, tourism, and media cooperation, provide fertile ground for a new paradigm: Pax Aseana Sinica. This vision transcends the binary of Pax Silica and Pax Sinica by rooting regional security in ASEAN principles of amity and cooperation, China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and the aspiration for a “Five Homes” Asia—peaceful, safe, prosperous, beautiful, and amicable. 

For Manila, this is a call to exercise creative diplomacy that strengthens ASEAN’s collective capacity, engages China constructively, and sustains its alliance with the United States, all in pursuit of a balanced and inclusive security order in the Asia Pacific. Thus, Philippine foreign policy must move beyond the two-fold choice between Pax Silica and Pax Sinica. 

Pax Silica, U.S.-led and grounded in military alliances, deterrence, and technological supremacy, seeks to preserve American primacy in Asia. Pax Sinica, China-led and rooted in Beijing’s global initiatives, seeks to expand China’s influence and leadership in the region. Both frameworks risk subordinating Southeast Asia to external powers. 

What ASEAN and China can jointly offer is a third way: Pax Aseana Sinica. This vision underscores ASEAN and China’s joint effort to craft a security order rooted in partnership rather than domination.

This concept is not a rejection of the Philippine alliance with the United States, nor a wholesale embrace of China’s leadership. It is a framework for peace and partnership rooted in ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), whose principles include mutual respect for sovereignty, freedom from external interference, non-interference in internal affairs, peaceful settlement of disputes, renunciation of force, and effective cooperation. It also advances China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. These principles provide the solid foundation for a security order where Southeast Asia is not a theater of rivalry but a community of peace.

For the Philippines, embracing Pax Aseana Sinica means recalibrating diplomacy. It requires Manila to prioritize ASEAN centrality, deepen constructive engagement with China, and assert its sovereign rights without resorting to coercion. This approach does not diminish Manila’s alliance with Washington. Rather, it recognizes that Pax Silica, grounded in U.S. military alliances and deterrence, and Pax Sinica, grounded in China’s global initiatives, are insufficient to address the complex challenges of our time. 

Climate change, pandemics, economic resilience, and technological disruption demand cooperative solutions, not military posturing or unilateral frameworks. Ultimately, it is a call for the Philippines to help shape a regional order where peace and cooperation define security in  the Asia Pacific.

China’s global initiatives—the Global Security Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative, and Belt and Road Initiative—offer platforms for  international cooperation. Pax Sinica envisions these initiatives as the backbone of Asia’s security order. Pax Silica, meanwhile, relies on U.S.-led alliances and technological dominance to maintain influence. 

Yet ASEAN, with its tradition of consensus-building, can shape these initiatives to serve regional interests more inclusively under Pax Aseana Sinica. China’s vision of a “Five Homes” Asia—peaceful, safe, prosperous, beautiful, and amicable—captures the aspiration for a region that is not dominated by external powers but empowered by its own independence. Pax Aseana Sinica ensures that this aspiration is realized through ASEAN’s collective agency, not through unilateral leadership by either Washington or Beijing.

The ACC, now marking fifteen years of operation, illustrates how institutional cooperation can anchor Pax Aseana Sinica in practice. By focusing on five priority areas of economic and trade, education, culture, tourism, and media, the ACC has delivered tangible outcomes that strengthen ASEAN–China ties and expand the region’s cooperative space. These areas are not peripheral to security but integral to it: economic resilience reduces vulnerability to external shocks, educational exchanges foster mutual understanding, cultural and tourism initiatives build trust, and media cooperation counters narratives of confrontation. 

The Philippines, through active engagement with the ACC, can help ensure that these cooperative domains reinforce ASEAN’s collective power and embed China’s initiatives within a multilateral framework. In this way, the ACC becomes more than a platform for functional cooperation; it becomes a mechanism for shaping a global and regional security order where peace is sustained by interdependence and dialogue rather than rivalry and coercion.

Critics will argue that Pax Aseana Sinica risks legitimizing China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea. This concern is valid. But perpetual confrontation only entrenches instability. Pax Silica risks reinforcing U.S. military dominance, while Pax Sinica risks reinforcing China’s ascendancy. 

By embedding China within ASEAN’s cooperative framework, Pax Aseana Sinica establishes incentives for restraint and dialogue. The Philippines, as the 2026 ASEAN Chair, can lead in articulating this paradigm, ensuring that sovereign rights are defended while regional peace is preserved. In doing so, Manila demonstrates that principled diplomacy can both safeguard national interests and advance a collective vision of peace in Asia.

Pax Aseana Sinica is not about choosing China over America, nor about surrendering ASEAN’s autonomy to either Pax Silica or Pax Sinica. It is about choosing peace over confrontation, cooperation over coercion, and strategic autonomy over dependency. The Philippines, by supporting ASEAN–China institutional mechanisms such as the ACC, can help embed China’s initiatives within ASEAN’s cooperative framework, transforming rivalry into dialogue and restraint. 

In doing so, Manila affirms that Southeast Asia is not merely a theater of great power competition but a community of peace empowered by its own independence. Championing Pax Aseana Sinica allows the Philippines to contribute to regional stability and global peace, demonstrating that the Asia Pacific can rise as a responsible stakeholder in world affairs, on its own terms, with its own voice, and in line with its own values. 

Ultimately, this is a call for the Philippines to lead with ASEAN and China in building a security order the Asian way: balanced, sustainable, and rooted in amity rather than enmity, with institutions like the ACC serving as platforms for cooperation and trust.