Taiwan Talks is in Manila for a two-part special following Asia's premier security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. At the forum, China accused the U.S. of seeking to set up an Asian NATO and said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a direct result of NATO’s eastern expansion. We ask what's behind China's narrative and whether U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s speech gave fuel to Beijing’s fire with his theme of Indo-Pacific convergence in a multipolar world.

Our guests:

Jay Batongbacal
- Director, University of the Philippines Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea

Richard Heydarian
- Host of “The View From Manila” TV show and senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines