The Philippines is one of several Asian countries - including Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia - that is locked into acrimonious territorial disputes with Beijing.
Manila disputes the sovereignty of a series of shoals, islands and waters in an area it calls the West Philippine Sea and Beijing calls the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the long-running dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea exploded again last November after China declared a controversial "air defence identification zone" that included the skies over that area.
Tensions grew at January’s World Economic Forum in Davos when Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, reportedly said that the two countries were now in a “similar situation” to Britain and Germany on the eve of World War I.
Despite enjoying strong economic ties - as the two European powers did in the early 20th century - a catastrophic breakdown in relations was possible, Mr Abe hinted.
Beijing dismissed those comments as an attempt to hide “Japan’s history of aggression.”