The election of President Donald Trump is welcome news. Yet, while Americans have rightly been focused on the election and its aftermath, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has not been idle. The hyper-aggression of the PRC has continued unabated against the U.S. and its allies and partners.

During this election season, the PRC’s hyper-aggression has been predominantly directed against our treaty ally, the Republic of the Philippines. Our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines is important from an America First perspective because of the strategic location it provides to our forward-deployed military forces in the Far East. Thus, Beijing’s ongoing aggression against Manila, which has been occurring for years, is not just a threat to the Philippines, but also to America’s national security.

The loss of access to bases in the Philippines puts the safety of our commerce, naval, and other military forces in the South China Sea at greater risk. With one-third, or approximately $5 trillion, worth of goods transiting the South China Sea each year, this is a strategic channel for the U.S. and allies like Japan. Given the actions by the PRC in the last few weeks, Beijing understands this well. The PRC has intensified its campaign of coercion, which is directed at compelling the Philippines to acknowledge and accept the PRC’s illegitimate claims in the South China Sea.

Manila has been pressured by the PRC to concede its sovereign rights by accepting changes to the “code of conduct” that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been manipulating in its favor. In the last week, the PRC publicly announced that it had released its delimitation and demarcation “baselines” of what it purports to be its “territorial waters” around Scarborough Shoal, which it illegally seized in 2012. Beijing made this announcement in response to Manila’s approval of two laws, the Maritime Zones Act and the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, that define the Philippines’ sea lanes and maritime zones, to strengthen its alleged “claims” to what are its recognized territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, which have already been formally rejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016. In addition to Beijing’s political warfare, the CCP continues its aggression against Philippine territory in the kinetic arena, with the ramping up of Chinese Coast Guard and PLA Navy patrols at Sabina and Second Thomas Shoals.