Are US allies in Southeast Asia defecting to China?

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/11/malaysia-philippines-relations-china [login to see] 18957.html
I would say no to the question - but there remains alot of finger wagging at just what the hell happened in these past 3 months that has seen a push off of the US. We have conducted a military pivot to Asia - but yet utterly failed to match the all important aspects of soft power that had to go with it. No build up of diplomats, no build up of VOA (just the opposite actually), no build up of other USG cabinet agencies. It is an item that goes deeper than the rippling surface waters of headlines - and my thoughts area whole sell change at DoS is really needed that includes promoting to desk officer some that are directly out of the theater and with current experience and understanding (and not killing their career in doing so). Perhaps putting some aspects of those desks forward to Hawaii could be an option as well as other agencies and really building up the effort. Next president maybe...