Asia's security its own business, no external party should interfere

In 2012, two American scholars published "A Tale of Two Asias" in Foreign Policy magazine, arguing that Asia was caught in a structural dilemma: growing economic integration on one side, and rising security tensions on the other. They argued that while Asian countries were becoming increasingly tied to China economically, they were relying more on the United States for security.

But this narrative does not reflect the reality, as the past decade has only made clearer. What it overlooks is a simple but essential fact: Asia's security tensions are not naturally occurring or beyond the region's control. They have been stirred up and manipulated by external powers — most notably, the US.

Under the pretext of "freedom of navigation", Washington has repeatedly intervened in the South China Sea, stirring up tensions in sensitive areas such as Ren'ai Reef. Meanwhile, the US has been accelerating the formation of exclusive military and security blocs through mechanisms such as the US-Japan-Philippines trilateral partnership, AUKUS, and the Quad, all aimed at reviving Cold War-style confrontations in the region. These moves are part of its broader "Indo-Pacific strategy" to reshape the regional security architecture to contain China.