The book’s author who fooled our gullible foreign secretary that the Chinese had agreed to leave Bajo de Masinloc.

US Assistant State Secretary for Asia Kurt Campbell was the diplomat who initiated the talks and told Cuisia that the Chinese had agreed to withdraw from the shoal. But even he has not claimed that China reneged on the agreement. In his 2016 book, The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia, his only mention of the episode was: “The Philippines’ ten-week standoff with China ultimately resulted in its loss of the Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by both countries.”

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