In November 2024, weeks after Chinese military drills encircled Taiwan and days after Donald Trump won a second term, former Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo sat down in Beijing with Media Unlocked, a series from the state-run China Daily. The interviewer put a pointed question to him: why is the Philippines escalating tensions in the South China Sea?
The question carries the outlet’s framing. The video keeps it in, labelled, so viewers can see exactly what Yeo was asked and how he answers. His reply goes well beyond the premise.
He begins with the 2016 arbitration and his account of how China came to lose it. He sets out the Filipino grievance in the voice of people who watch the nine-dash line come right up to their horizon. He explains why a US missile system on Luzon has become the latest point of friction, and what he sees as the real danger for Manila in leaning on Washington. Then he widens the lens: whether the world is entering a new era of great-power competition, what Sunzi’s The Art of War teaches about starting a war, and what he believes comes after a war is won.
Each government tells this story differently. The 2016 tribunal ruled for the Philippines on most of its claims; China did not take part and rejects the award. At Second Thomas Shoal, Beijing wants the grounded BRP Sierra Madre towed away, and Manila says it will keep asserting its rights there. China condemns the Typhon deployment as a source of confrontation; Washington and Manila plan to expand US missile deployments in the Philippines.
Why it matters for Asia
The questions Yeo raised have sharpened since he spoke. In May 2026, the United States fired a Tomahawk missile from a Typhon launcher in the Philippines for the first time, during the Balikatan exercises. In September, Chinese and Philippine vessels collided near Sabina Shoal, and each government blamed the other.
The Philippines also chairs ASEAN this year, and it has said it wants to conclude a South China Sea code of conduct with China in 2026. How Manila weighs its alliance with Washington against its relationship with Beijing will shape that negotiation. The outcome matters to every Southeast Asian state whose trade crosses these waters. Yeo speaks as a former foreign minister of a small trading state that depends on those sea lanes staying open.
Related on Meridian
- South China Sea Collision at Sabina Shoal: What the Footage Shows
- The West’s Five Stages of Grief over China’s Rise: George Yeo
Further reading
- Bill Hayton, The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia (Yale University Press, 2014).
A history of the competing claims and how they hardened. - David Shambaugh, Where Great Powers Meet: America and China in Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press).
How ASEAN states manage relations with both powers. - Kishore Mahbubani, Has China Won?
A Singaporean view of the US–China rivalry. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated by Samuel B. Griffith (Oxford University Press).
Excerpt from Media Unlocked (China Daily), recorded in Beijing in November 2024. Used for commentary and analysis. Views expressed are the speaker’s own. The interviewer’s questions reflect the outlet’s framing. Watch the original
