The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency is continuing to send shock waves in the corridors of power across East Asia. Yet even before the results of the 2016 U.S. elections became known, the tremors of political change in the region were already evident. Arguably, the U.S. president-elect has only added fuel to the fire of America's relations with East Asia.
The trend in emerging rifts between a number of formerly U.S.-centric East Asian states and the Obama administration had been visible, under the radar, for several years. However, in the last few weeks and months before the American elections, there was an eruption of anti-American sentiment, principally from the increasingly populist-oriented democracies of Southeast Asia.