Is United States provoking China by using Philippines?

Poking the dragon in the eye is never an intelligent thing to do. But this week, backed by the United States' ironclad guarantee for security, the Philippines began to assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea by placing buoys in the waters. It claims to be its own. Not only this, on the 17th May, the Philippine military chief also visited the remote islands near the disputed separately archipelago insisting that it was important for the Philippines to monitor and detect who had access to the waters in the territory. The United States claims it is expanding its military foot print in the Philippines to better defend Taiwan in case of a conflict. But by doing what it has done has Washington pushed the Philippines to the forefront of a firing range as and when hostilities break out with China in the region? Mohammed Saleh gets you the details.