China Is Building a Foothold Less Than 100 Miles from Continental US
For many, the problem of a rising China appears to be an issue for future generations.
After all, despite the meteoric rise of the communist giant’s economy, military and culture, the People’s Republic lacks the basic ability to project power and maintain a force abroad thanks to its second-rate navy.
Now, however, it seems that in the chaos of 2020, China is not only rapidly increasing production of advanced arms but is actively working on an Atlantic Ocean foothold less than 100 miles from American shores.
As far back as 2019, Chinese defense officials publicly expressed their plan to shore up military cooperation with islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
According to state-operated Xinhua News, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe framed the expansion around America as part of China’s Belt and Road initiative.
After scrambling the world order with a viral pandemic fueled by its lies, China is taking full advantage of distracted nations to further the interests of the People’s Republic.
Near the end of 2019, China Merchants Port Holdings, through a joint venture with a French company, began to gobble up naval infrastructure around the globe. Although the staked ports are spread all over the world, one is uncomfortably close to the continental United States.
According to shipping logistics network Atlas, CMPH’s joint venture gained a major foothold in ports in India, Ukraine, Singapore and Jamaica, the latter of which is roughly just 500 miles from the coast of Florida.
Although CMPH controls only 49 percent of the joint holding securing ports around the world, the Chinese government’s habit of leaning on domestic companies for the furtherance of state interests means the Communist Party of China will now likely hold sway over several foreign terminals.
In the Bahamas, the Chinese regime has been slowly building up a massive presence on the islands.
According to an April 2019 article in the Bahamian newspaper The Tribune, a container port project worth tens of millions of dollars in the city of Freeport, situated less than 100 miles from American shores in Florida, was undertaken in part by Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based investment company.
China’s hold on the island appears to have grown with years of investment, and now the Bahamas are happy to join in with other Caribbean nations parroting Chinese propaganda. According to Chinese state-controlled Global Times, in May, the islands were among nine countries in the region to affirm the “one China” dogma.
Under the “one China” policy, Taiwan is not seen as an independent nation, but a wayward province of the communist mainland.
Where the communist regime can’t gain a foothold, it is putting in work to build up clout in nations surrounding the United States.
In Cuba, Chinese laborers worked alongside islanders beginning in 2017 to modernize a port on the socialist island, according to Xinhua News. Financed largely by a China-backed loan, the massive undertaking would open the area for larger ships.
There’s no doubt China has been playing the long game by building up relationships with its Belt and Road program. Through the initiative, Chinese loans have gone toward foreign construction projects and infrastructure repair around the world.
When the loans cannot be repaid, the ruling communist regime is more than happy to accept alternate payment. In the case of Sri Lanka, which was unable to pay for projects financed by the Asian giant, it was forced to hand over a port to a Chinese company on a 99-year lease.
We can’t even expect our neighbors to the north to stand beside us against China, either.
Last year, Canadian officials approved winter training in North America for cadres of Chinese troops. The training would have given insider knowledge on surviving harsh northern winters and navigating the terrain of continental America.
The training was canceled after American defense officials intervened.
President Xi Jinping and other ruling members of the Chinese Communist Party know that a foothold doesn’t have to be a fortified bunker bristling with guns. When they economically encircle their enemies and turn neighboring countries against them, the need for military might takes a backseat.
The United States’ ability to win a war with China already is uncertain. Although the country is not able to put boots on the ground in America yet, its own coastline is assumed to be protected by batteries of ship-killing hypersonic missiles for which we simply do not have an effective countermeasure.
With the likely ascension of presumptive President-elect Joe Biden, we risk losing even the slim chance that we could contain an aggressively growing China.
Biden’s pro-China attitude, which paved the way for the global ascension of the massive country, would undoubtedly be exploited by communist leaders who are more than happy to meet with an “old friend” than with a hardliner such as President Donald Trump.
CORRECTION, Dec. 23, 2020: This article originally claimed that the Jamaican terminal of Kingston Freeport is less than 100 miles from the coast of Florida, when in reality the two locations are about 500 miles apart. However, the city of Freeport in the Bahamas is indeed less than 100 miles away from Florida, and is the site of a container port project worth tens of millions of dollars that was undertaken in part by Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based investment company. We have updated this article to add these clarifications.
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