America's Asia alliances

Protesters carry placards containing the image of US President Donald Trump as they try to get past antiriot police in their attempt to march towards the United States Embassy in Manila to air their disappointment against the current administration and the arrival of President Trump for the ASEAN Summit on Sunday, 12 November 2017.

By some assessments, Donald Trump aka the destroyer of America's bilateral alliances in Asia has torpedoed Washington's position in the region, leaving in his wake waves of reputation damage and mistrust.

But it's worthwhile recalling the supposed region-wide esteem in which the United States was held before Trump took office.

In early 2013, I spoke at a symposium in Tokyo about the South China Sea. Another speaker described the People's Republic of China's recent seizure of Scarborough Shoal in Philippine maritime territory. The senior Philippine military officer sitting next to me said quietly and despairingly - to himself, "There was nothing we could do."

What he did not say, but no doubt was thinking, was: There was plenty the US could have done but hadn't. The Chinese occupied Scarborough Shoal despite having promised Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kurt Campbell that they would withdraw their ships. Then Washington explained to Manila how the US-Philippine Defense Treaty, which the Filipinos thought applied to the situation, really didn't apply.

And then the Americans encouraged the Philippines to sue China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. After the court ruled overwhelmingly in the Philippines' favor, the Barack Obama administration did absolutely nothing.

In fact, Obama's national security advisor and the chief of naval operations visited Beijing soon afterward and refrained from even mentioning the PCA ruling, in hopes the Chinese would appreciate the gesture. They didn't.

US President Barack Obama speaking during a press conference following the conclusion of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, and at right, Philippine President

Rodrigo Duterte speaking during a press conference in Davao City. Photos: AFP/Saul Loeb and Manman Dejeto

In 2016, ahead of an Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) meeting that both would attend, reporters asked Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte what message he wanted to send to Obama.

Proclaiming, in Duterte-speak, that he would not accept a lecture from Obama about his deadly war on drug suspects, Duterte said, "You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum."

Duterte moved his country closer to the People's Republic of China. And it wasn't just the Philippines.

There was also Thailand - one of America's oldest treaty allies and strongest friends in the region. In 2014, as is its wont, the Thai military staged its umpteenth coup.

The Obama administration went out of its way to humiliate the Thai regime. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Danny Russel even traveled to Bangkok and gratuitously and repeatedly insulted the Thais.

Meanwhile, Washington had no such problems with a coup in Egypt that happened a little earlier. Indeed, Obama even seemed to support it. The Thais took notice and moved closer to the PRC.

And there was more: Taiwan knew that the Obama administration regarded it as an irritant to the more important US-PRC relationship, and wished the free people on Taiwan would quietly accept PRC enslavement.

And by 2016 the Chinese had taken de facto control of the South China Sea - despite Xi Jinping's assurances to Obama that they would not. American retribution?

None. Indeed, the marching orders at Pacific Command when it came to aggressive Chinese behavior during the Obama years were to "deescalate" and give the PRC "off-ramps."

Don't think other countries didn't notice. Ah, yes, those were the good old days for US prestige in Asia.

And then Donald Trump came along and ruined everything. Before long the Japan Self Defense Forces were out and about in more places and more often than ever. Even the South Korean Navy has done joint exercises with the Japanese, American and Australian navies.