America is not a landlord seeking rent. It is a gangster collecting protection money

 Mr Ng said that “America’s primacy has become the overriding consideration” in its foreign policy, at the expense of bilateral and multilateral ties. He added that Asia’s image of the US has “changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent”.  CNA

The above is a polite way of calling the American a landlord seeking rent. And American cronies would simply accept it without disputing if this is true. Americans cannot be depicted to be a bad guy, a gangster or a terrorist state. Americans are angels, very sweet guys, very nice people, protecting the world, maintaining peace, not the world's number terrorists starting wars everywhere and killing millions in their wars, bullying small states, imposing sanctions and tariffs, and twisting their arms to take sides, forbidding them to trade with China or Russia etc.

A landlord can only collect rent if he rents out his properties. No landlord can collect any rent when the properties did not belong to the landlord. Caveat, if the landlord colonised or robbed the land from the people, like North America, Japan and South Korea or Hawaii. The Americans are going to grab Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. It they succeed, they can then act as landlord to collect rent.

The European states do not belong to the Americans and do not have to pay rent. All the Southeast Asian countries are also independent states and do not have to pay rent to the Americans, unless the Americans seized the Straits of Malacca and start to collect rent for passage.

What the Americans are doing are gangster behaviour, demanding independent states to pay protection money. Definitely not collecting rent. Unless countries think they are colonies or cronies of the Americans, and their lands belong to the Americans. Then they should pay rent due to the landlords, like the Japanese and South Koreans and the Hawaiians, all colonies of the USA.

The Americans have been setting up bases in their colonies and crony states all over the world to protect the interests of the American Empire. Now they are broke and they changed the narrative by claiming that the military bases are there to protect their colonies and crony states from strawmen or fictional threats created by the Americans. The real threat to countries of the world is America, the world's number one terrorist state, everyday eyeing to grab countries using fictitious lies about American security and interests. Good examples are the military bases in the Middle East to control and threaten the Arab leaders to do as dictated by the Americans for the interests of the Israelis...against the interests of the Arabs and Arab states.

Any jokers still believe the American bases in Japan and South Korea are there to protect these two American colonies or to control and rule over them?