ANALYSIS – As I have written here and here, Communist China has just signed a new security pact with a longtime American ally in the South Pacific, the Solomon Islands, giving it a beachhead for expanded naval operations across the Pacific.
The site of a major WWII naval battle, the Solomon Islands is strategically located on the doorstep of Australia and New Zealand.
This new Chinese deal potentially also places Chinese military assets far nearer to Guam, with its strategic U.S. military bases in the Western Pacific, than ever before.
And despite its significance and President Biden’s frenzied last-minute diplomatic efforts, he proved powerless to stop it.
As Politico’s China Watcher newsletter notes:
A furious, late effort by the Biden administration to pry the Solomon Islands away from a deal with China was in vain. That failure is heaping pressure on the White House to make sure more dominoes don’t fall.
It adds:
The agreement — sealed despite objections from the U.S., Australia, Japan and New Zealand — constitutes a rebuke of U.S. diplomatic disengagement with Oceania in recent decades that has created an opportunity for China to boost its influence in the region.
The strategic value of this victory for China cannot be underestimated. Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation notes in Politico:
The Chinese are students of history … and trying to prevent us from using any second island chain against them. For them to be able to use it first against us is at the forefront of their minds when it comes to Oceania.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price echoed that sentiment when he said Monday: “We believe that signing such an agreement could increase destabilization within the Solomon Islands and will set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region.”
But there were blunter assessments on Capitol Hill with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) saying:
Given the islands’ strategic location, the [Chinese Communist Party] obviously wants to use the Solomons as a strategic asset to upend the military stability of the Indo-Pacific.
And the timing of the Solomon Islands’ signing of the deal by controversial Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was a slap in the face to Biden as he preempted a visit by Biden emissaries.
As China Watch reports:
Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wales and the government accelerated the agreement’s signing prior to the arrival in the Solomon Islands this week of a U.S. government delegation led by Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, and Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
To embarrass Biden even more, Politico reports:
China’s Foreign Ministry rubbed salt in the wound over the tardy diplomatic pile-on. “Several senior US officials now fancy a visit to some [Pacific island countries] all of a sudden after all these years … do they have ulterior motives?” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.
Along with Biden’s disastrous defense budget that utterly fails to upgrade the U.S. Navy to face China’s mushrooming fleet, Biden’s inaction in the face of China’s growing network of ‘bases’ is creating a fatal mix of dangers for America that may be exploding sooner rather than later.
READ NEXT: Biden’s Hollow Defense Budget >>
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.
If Biden wasn’t corrupt and compromised by his family dealings with China, perhaps he wouldn’t be so feckless when it comes to opposing China.
The Chinese communists own the Biden crime family, so Biden does or does not do what they tell him.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone considering his Bungled evacuation from Afghanistan that left Countless Americans killed and the countless Americans behind who are now in fear of the Taliban which Biden handed over to them.And then his retalitary missle strike that didn’t hit its target but instead killed innocent civilians.And I doubt that the Generals and Secretary Blinking will never be punished for this entire debacle.And let’s not forget the Southern Borders where Mexican criminals thousands of illegal that are allowed to enter the United States.President Biden and his White House are a joke to the rest of the world.I don’t think he knows what he is doing half the time.This President is dangerous and at times I believe he suffers from dementia.He hasn’t got a clue as what is going on most of the time.And what about Gas prices that have gone through the roof which he conveniently blames on Putin.He created this mess which started long before the Crisis in Ukraine.Does he really think the American people are that stupid.This President needs to resign so that the little dignity that we have left can be salvaged.
Isn’t it similar to Jimmy Carter and the Panama Canel give away, that the CCP now runs??!!
The CCP will find defending the Solomon Islands will be difficult. Japan would agree.