VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Duterte wants neutral, independent foreign policy but ‘really loves China’

In an exclusive interview on China’s Global Times, former president Rodrigo Duterte said he “tried to craft an independent foreign policy” when he assumed office because he “want[ed] to be neutral.” But in the same interview on the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper on April 12, he declared: “I really love China more than the Americans.”

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