China is Planning an Airbase On America’s Doorstep

[rangerrebew]

China is Planning an Airbase On America’s Doorstep

By
Caleb Larson

Published
May 5, 2021
 

China has plans to improve an airplane landing strip as well as a bridge one of the Republic of Kiribati’s outlying islands, according to a recent report in Reuters. The island, known as Kanton Island or alternatively as Canton Island, is roughly midway between Asia and the North American continent, though it is a scant 1,900 miles southwest of Hawaii.

More Details Coming

It is unclear exactly how extensive the proposed project could be, or what it would concretely look like if finalized. “The [Kiribati] government hasn’t shared the cost and other details other than it’s a feasibility study for the rehabilitation of the runway and bridge,” a Kitibati lawmaker told Reuters. “The opposition will be seeking more information from government in due course.”

Kiribati is a sprawling but thinly populated Pacific Island nation, and the only country in the world with territory in the four Cardinal Hemispheres. Kiribati also has one of the world’s largest Exclusive economic zones through the islands have very few natural resources, and many of Kiribati’s 120,000 citizens depend on the fishing or tourism industries.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/05/china-is-planning-an-airbase-on-americas-doorstep/

[rangerrebew]

I would have thought Biden and Austin would have offered Andrews AFB as a joint base with the US.

[PeteS in CA]

1900 miles from Hawaii is "America's Doorstep"? For that matter, Kiribati is some 4000 miles from San Diego, which is on the North American continent! As I posted on another thread, Japan learned the hard way in WW2 that isolated island outposts far from the main island are logistics nightmares and highly vulnerable to attacks that overwhelm the island's defenses. If China tried much of anything they'd learn the same.