After withdrawing from two huge U.S. military bases in the Philippines at the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, American forces are returning and building a new presence in nine sites on Philippine bases under a 2014 defense pact to counter China's increasingly assertive actions. Most of the rural towns that will host the American forces are far-flung but located in relatively close proximity to the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan. Santa Ana in Cagayan province lies across a sea border from the self-governed island that China has threatened to annex. U.S. forces are building a smaller presence than in the past, but they still face logistical challenges.

The daily struggle to find work for Chinese immigrants living illegally in a borough of New York is a far cry from the picture Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint. The former president has repeatedly suggested that Chinese migrants are a coordinated group of “military-age” men who have come to the United States to build an “army." Immigrants who talked to The Associated Press said they came to the U.S. to escape poverty in China or the threat of persecution in their repressive home country. Asian advocacy organizations say they're concerned the exaggerated rhetoric could fuel further harassment against Asians in the U.S.

The daily struggle to find work for Chinese immigrants living illegally in a borough of New York is a far cry from the picture Donald Trump and other Republicans have sought to paint. The former president has repeatedly suggested that Chinese migrants are a coordinated group of “military-age” men who have come to the United States to build an “army.” Immigrants who talked to The Associated Press said they came to the U.S. to escape poverty in China or the threat of persecution in their repressive home country. Asian advocacy organizations say they’re concerned the exaggerated rhetoric could fuel further harassment against Asians in the U.S.