The United States, Australia, France and Britain will open new embassies in the Pacific, boost staffing levels, and engage with leaders of island nations more often in a bid to counter China's rising influence in the region, sources have told Reuters.
The battle for influence in the sparsely populated Pacific matters because each of the tiny island states has a vote at international forums like the United Nations, and they also control vast swathes of resource-rich ocean.
I commented on Britain's effort.
And let's not forget the value of the land. I've long called for spreading out our military footprint in the face of China's lengthening military reach:
When China had difficulty even knowing what we were doing over the horizon, it didn't matter that we had concentrated assets near China. Now that China can strike throughout the western Pacific, that matters a lot.
To reduce the impact of being hit by a theater-wide Pearl Harbor (and to reduce the temptations for China to try that) we are dispersing our assets (especially away from Okinawa) in the western Pacific, from Japan to Australia, with the Philippines, and Singapore in between.
Guam is a major base being built up, but we worry about that island being a target, too. In addition to seeking money to harden our facilities to withstand ballistic missile barrages, we want alternate landing strips at Tinian and Saipan[.]
I noted our Wake Island, too, as a potential asset. And those other small nations gain added value as Chinese power increases.
UPDATE: Well that's a problem:
Pacific island nations declared climate change to be their "single greatest threat", urging Washington to return to the Paris Agreement on climate, just as Western powers seek to check China's rising influence in the region.
We will need to point out that America is reducing greenhouse gasses outside of the agreement while China pumps them out inside the agreement.
And write checks, telling them they can use the money for whatever they want--whether mitigating climate change as they see it or something else. And then see whether they put their money where their mouth is.
It is possible it is just a bargaining tactic to get more aid. I don't actually care (much) what they spend the money on.
