I CAME across this article on the website Time, and I was encouraged to read it at length for its theme: Taiwan. In recent times, the island off the east coast of mainland China has figured in the news as a possible trigger for hostilities between China and the United States in the South China Sea (SCS) region. And when you talk about the SCS, you cannot but involve the Philippines.

Of late, what has shocked Asean nations was the formation of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (Aukus) military alliance, a move immediately perceived by Asean leaders (but for Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.) as an escalation of the SCS crisis. How does the Time article bear upon this feared escalation?