February 11, 2022
Buried News: China setting up an airstrip close to Hawaii
By Monica Showalter
As if the U.S. were not in bad enough shape militarily, China has a little surprise for us.
Here's the buried news item from Politico's national security newsletter, dated Jan. 11:
A "SURPRISE" IN THE PACIFIC: U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator KURT CAMPBELL says the region could be in store for a "strategic surprise" — comments that Reuters' DAVID BRUNNSTROM and KIRSTY NEEDHAM describe as "apparently referring to possible Chinese ambitions to establish Pacific-island bases."
"If you look and if you ask me, where are the places where we are most likely to see certain kinds of strategic surprise — basing or certain kinds of agreements or arrangements — it may well be in the Pacific," Campbell said Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.
"We have a very short amount of time, working with partners like Australia, like New Zealand, like Japan, like France, who have an interest in the Pacific, to step up our game across the board," Campbell added, revealing it was the issue he is "most concerned about" for the next couple years.
As Brunnstrom and Needham note, "lawmakers from the Pacific island republic of Kiribati told Reuters last year China has drawn up plans to upgrade an airstrip and bridge" on the small island of Kanton, southwest of Hawaii. The construction "would offer China a foothold deep in territory that had been firmly aligned to the United States and its allies since World War Two."
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/buried_news_china_setting_up_an_airstrip_close_to_hawaii.html
