Under Biden, US reimagines Asian alliances as 'lattice' fence

President Joe Biden, center, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose before a trilateral meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 11, 2024. FILE - A Filipino soldier fires a Javelin anti-tank weapon system during a live exercise as part of the annual U.S.-Philippines joint military exercises called "Balikatan" at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province, April 13, 2023. FILE - President Joe Biden, left, talks with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, ahead of a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023.

For decades, U.S. policy in Asia has relied on what was informally known as the “hub and spokes” system of bilateral alliances. But lately, U.S. officials have used another analogy to describe their vision for the region: a lattice fence.