MANILA, Philippines Last month, Chinas coast guard attacked Filipino troops with axes and knives, ramming vessels on a routine mission to resupply a Philippine outpost on a disputed shoal in the South China Sea and severing the thumb of one sailor.

A week later, the Philippines found itself bracing for the United States a long-standing ally and defense partner to withdraw from global affairs as Donald Trump makes gains ahead of Novembers election for the White House.

A withered performance by 81-year-old U.S. President Joe Biden during his first debate of the season against 78-year-old Trump saw the right-wing populist former president surge in electoral betting markets, prompting panicked Democrats to scramble for an alternative standard-bearer who could top the ticket and many international observers to brace for the return of President Trump and his America First agenda.

A U.S. abandonment of East Asia would force weaker countries in the region to, without choice, accept Chinas carrot-stick hegemony, Rep. Mark Cojuangco, a national lawmaker in the Philippines House of Representatives, told HuffPost. We would lose our territorial integrity, and American commitment would always be doubted going forward.

During Trumps administration, the Philippines was ruled by then-President Rodrigo Duterte, a similarly brash populist who lashed out at Washington and sought to forge closer ties with Beijing. But increasingly aggressive Chinese actions to claim uninhabited islands and fishing grounds in waters internationally recognized as part of the Philippines have driven current President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. to shore up relations with the U.S.

Marcos, 66, the namesake son of a former dictator, cast Chinas push for dominance in the heavily trafficked waterway as a challenge to the open, inclusive and rules-based international order established after the end of World War II, which sought to make the floors of the United Nations the last battlefield.