It's déjà vu all over again, as communist China looks to establish a naval base in increasingly communist Nicaragua, just like the Soviets did in the 1980s.
But in one area it's not just a similarity between the two eras and superpowers, because in Nicaragua today, the same exact Marxist dictator in sunglasses is in charge again 40 years later.
Under the leadership of aspiring leftist despot Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan last year in favor of new ties with China's communist regime. Nicaragua also seized the Taiwanese Embassy in Managua and transferred it to China in December.
It then signed a memorandum of understanding to join China's latest imperial ploy, its Belt and Road Initiative (the BRI) in January.
As the Washington Examiner notes, the BRI “has been denounced by U.S. officials for years as a ‘predatory' lending scheme designed to allow Beijing to buy an empire.”
But the biggest concern for U.S. military planners, according to Taiwan's leaders, would be Beijing's hopes to create a naval outpost on America's soft underbelly.
The Examiner reports:
“The Chinese are talking with them about also potentially setting up a naval outpost,” Taiwanese Vice Foreign Minister Alexander Yui told reporters this week. “So they have a very large plan.”
The Examiner adds:
“It's part of their expansionist agenda — take over Taiwan, and break from the first island chain into the rest of the Pacific, take over the Pacific,” Yui said. “They are expanding. They want to become the predominant power in the world and also export their way of thought, their way of living, to the rest of the world.”
…“The Chinese could do it and call it the beginning of the Nicaragua Canal if we ticked them off enough about Taiwan,” U.S. Army War College research professor Evan Ellis, who worked as a member of the State Department's policy planning staff during then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's tenure, told the Washington Examiner. “It would symbolically be a big deal, because the Chinese know they could get military access if they asked, and the Russians could operate out of it, too.”
Ellis explained:
I think there's [sic] reasons why it could happen if the Chinese wanted to do a provocation that was big, but they could still [claim it was] a commercial port. Militarily, it would be more defensible than trying to operate out of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, for example.
While concrete moves toward a base are still not visible, building one would have both military and geopolitical value.
“It would allow for more efficient power projection,” said Marcin Jerzewski, who leads the Taiwan office of the European Values Center for Security Policy in Taipei.
“Even if those bases are not used for kinetic conflict, their sheer presence would send a signal that China is indeed providing an alternative model for countries within the Indo-Pacific to follow.” ALN
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Ana Navarro is a proud NICARRRRRRRRAGUAN! It’s really gluttonous of her to live in our abundant capitalistic society. Keeps her bank account full of her dirty money to help spread the NICARRRRRRANGUAN CCP support for the NICARRRRAGUAN people and our commie democrats!
Cuban missile crisis 2 only missiles MUCH better than in 1962
GCaptain website recently informed us that the Solomon Islands (remember Guadalcanal and Rendova?) ambassador will no longer allow American warships and US Coast Guard vessels to visit their territory because they have signed a new pact with the Chinese communists.
Now this.
The American empire is collapsing as we speak.
You can almost feel it, at some point in the not too distant future, there will be a war with China, and Russia would most likely join them. The odds are that it will lead to a nuclear exchange by both them and the United States. There probably won’t be much left for the victor.
For crying out loud!!! WAKE UP, AMERICA!!! Hasn’t anyone seen the movie “Red Dawn?!!! (The ORIGINAL version) This is JUST how the Russians and South Americans and Cubans sneaked into America to start a war…from the INSIDE!…All of them came through the southern border from South America through Mexico!!!…Just like they (and Middle Easterners) are pouring into our country by the hundreds of thousands right now!!!
You have a point, Sir. While the Woke Pentagon is planning drag queen tea luncheons and mandating seminars on pronouns the Chinks are preparing to nuke us (or worse) and dominate the planet.