Southeast Asia’s reliance on not taking a stand is a dangerous bet

SINGAPORE – “Don’t make us select!” That has been, is, and virtually definitely will proceed to be Southeast Asia’s reflexive response to intensifying geopolitical competitors within the area.

This mindset persists regardless of — or maybe due to — a digital transformation of the area’s political and financial dynamics, two years of a worldwide well being pandemic and Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.

Making an attempt to distance themselves from the more and more contentious relationship between China and Western governments is smart for lots of causes. But for some outsiders, even these sympathetic to the area’s place, refusal to acknowledge sharpening geopolitical actuality dangers devastating penalties.