US needs new bases and new capabilities in Asia to counter China threat, defense chief nominee...

Nope, The P.I. wanted to raise the rent on the bases...Pinatubo erupted, then we vacated.

Guardian

“The Philippines will station new fighter jets and two frigates as it reopens the former US naval base in Subic Bay to military use in a further response to Chinese expansionism in the disputed South China Sea.
Philippines reinforces its claim to South China Sea outpost
Once one of the biggest US naval facilities in the world, Subic Bay was shut in 1992 after the Philippine Senate terminated a bases agreement with Washington at the end of the cold war.
Manila converted the facility, which was never home to the Philippine military, into an economic zone.”