This is certainly interesting:
On June 27, a plane carrying Wen Jiabao made a “technical” stop on the island of Terceira, in the Azores. Following an official greeting by Alamo Meneses, the regional secretary of environment of the sea, the Chinese premier spent four hours touring the remote Portuguese outpost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wen’s Terceira walkabout, which followed a four-nation visit to South America, largely escaped notice at the time, but alarm bells should have immediately gone off in Washington and in European capitals. For one thing, Wen’s last official stop on the trip was Santiago, the capital of Chile. Flights from Chile to China normally cross the Pacific, not the Atlantic, so there was no reason for his plane to be near the Azores. Moreover, those who visit the Azores generally favor other islands in the out-of-the-way chain.
The author believes China is interested in an air base at the Lajes Field that we will soon abandon. China could patrol the Atlantic and interdict the US from Europe from there.
Why China would care to interdict US lines of communication across the Atlantic is beyond me. The Soviets had an interest in doing so during the Cold War. But China? I'd be more worried if they moved into Guam.
If China had a base there, it would simply give our east coast Marines and the 40% of our Navy not based in the Pacific something to do in the early part of a war.
I can see the Chinese wanting to fly electronic surveillance planes to snoop on our naval exercises in the Atlantic, which is basically an American lake at this point, but I can't see any war time advantages for China.
