Other irritants in the Estrada-Ramos relationship abound - most of them having to do with the perception that Estrada is either undoing Ramos's legislative program or not taking his predecessor's initiatives to their logical conclusion.
The perceptionof U.S. decline and Chinese ascendancy forms much of the subtext to the current relationship, with Beijing seeking greater international influence commensurate with its status as the world's second-largest economy.