Letter From the Editors

Welcome to the April 2024 issue of The Diplomat Magazine.

This month we look forward (to the next U.S. presidential administration) and back (to South Korea’s Sewol disaster and the Philippines’ long history in the South China Sea) to make sense of the present. From trade to public safety, purely domestic matters to issues of international importance, the past is a foundation for the future, and the future motivates the policy (and voting) choices of today.

When current U.S. President Joe Biden took office, many analysts expected him to reverse course on the “trade war” his predecessor, Donald Trump, had initiated with China. When those expectations didn’t materialize, some analysts concluded instead that there was little difference between the Biden and Trump administrations on China economic and trade policy. Both extremes are wrong, explains Wendy Cutler, the vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, in our cover article. With Biden and Trump heading for a rematch in the U.S. election this November, understanding the real differences – and similarities – in their China policies is crucial.

April 16 marks 10 years since the Sewol Ferry sank on its way to South Korea’s Jeju Island – a tragedy that gripped the nation. South Korea correspondent Mitch Shin revisits the disaster, where missteps by the authorities were so glaring that they eventually (albeit indirectly) resulted in the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. However, Shin notes that neither of Park’s successors – liberal Moon Jae-in and conservative Yoon Suk-yeol – have made headway on the key demands of the bereaved families: answers about what caused the sinking and accountability for the high-ranking officials who oversaw the botched rescue. 

The United States is the Philippine’s sole treaty ally, yet American policy toward one of Manila’s biggest concerns – the South China Sea – embraces “strategic ambiguity.” With his brief genealogy of Philippine claims in the South China Sea, academic and policy advisor Richard Javad Heydarian argues that “what’s often overlooked in the historical analysis of the South China Sea disputes is how the Philippines’ proactive efforts at consolidating its claims in the area forced Washington to double down on its strategic ambiguity.” At the same time, in the present era the South China Sea struggle has come to galvanize the country’s strategic elites and captured the attention of the masses.

We hope you enjoy these stories, and the many more in the following pages.