Author: krf19

Richard Heydarian is a senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines and author of “The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China and the New Struggle for Global Mastery.” Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. has overseen a dramatic foreign policy shift in his first year in office despite initially signaling continuity with Beijing-leaning predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. Instead, Marcos has sought closer security partnerships with the U.S., Japan, Australia and European nations. The change in direction has been broadly popular with Filipino voters, the vast majority of whom support strong pushback against China’s expanding footprint in the South China Sea. But Marcos’…