Chinese Takeover Saipan

Chinese Takeover of the Central Pacific Not on Washington’s Radar
by Liberato.US
May 2017

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Part 1: Is the Central Pacific Falling Prey to Chinese Expansionism?
Part 2: Chinese Takeover of the Central Pacific Not on Washington’s Radar
Part 3: China’s Ultimate Aims
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Part 1:

Is the Central Pacific Falling Prey to Chinese Expansionism?

Something strange is happening on Saipan. Residents report being approached by Chinese intermediaries offering to buy their houses for fantastic sums. The Zoning Board then spot-zones properties as mixed residential-commercial, allowing the property to be classified as business accommodations. As one resident told The Truth:

There are Americans being kicked out of their homes left and right, with apartment complexes and houses being purchased and converted into barracks for illegal construction workers, schools being purchased for additional development.

The resident also reports that Saipan’s sole hospital is teeming with Chinese birth tourism. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is the only place in the United States that doesn't require a visa for Chinese entry into the country. Per our source on Saipan:

Anyone can come here from China (often 8 months pregnant) without any sort of normal visa process, and then decide to stay indefinitely, or simply give birth and return back to the mainland. In the case of the casino, they enter under the visa waiver program as tourists, and are then taken to workers barracks (often just retro-fitted warehouses). The construction sub-contractors confiscate their passports, and by the time they've overstayed the normal tourist stay, they are essentially indentured servants/slaves.

Some U.S. citizens are leaving due to the creeping Sinification. Some businesses are shutting down, starved for employees because of the priority given to Chinese construction projects:

These developments are overwhelmingly voted down by U.S. residents, leading to emergency sessions in the legislature where the law is amended overnight and bills fly through. There are a small handful of individuals who are manipulating all branches of local government, and using ties in DC to apparently exempt the CNMI from federal policies that are implemented everywhere else in the U.S.

Our source might join the exodus:

The Northern Marianas is one location where I felt like [Trump's] rhetoric concerning "America First" really made sense. I guess I was hoping the Trump administration policies would prevent the Chinese from purchasing my home, and the news of the Governor's meeting with Trump [April 4, 2017 apparently signaling the continuation of the Chinese visa waiver program] crushed some of that hope. The next time a Chinese translator walks onto my property and asks me how much his associate will have to pay for the house, I will need to seriously consider abandoning this patch of U.S. soil.

What motivates these strange goings-on and why does it matter?

The Central Pacific is a strategic linchpin. Through its forays in the Northern Mariana Islands and Micronesia in World War II, Japan quickly gained control of much of the Pacific, from North Asia down to Oceania and across from the Indian Ocean towards America.

One explanation for China’s current interest in the Central Pacific is financial. Saipan relaxed restrictions on casinos in 2014 and granted exclusive rights to open casinos there to Hong Kong-based Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. (formerly a frozen foods company). CEO Mark Brown is a Trump protégé and the company has ties to many other power players in the U.S., including a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and three former U.S. governors, including past chairmen of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees.

Imperial Pacific operates the Best Sunshine Live casino on Saipan known for catering to China’s super-rich flocking there after China’s crackdown on corruption in Macau. Best Sunshine does more business than Macau’s most storied casinos; high-rollers wager an average $39 million apiece. But observers say ordinary gamblers would have no interest in Best Sunshine’s dowdy storefront operation on an island not known as a major tourist destination. Therefore, observers suspect, Best Sunshine must be facilitating criminal money-laundering or capital flight out of China. A former executive sued the company accusing it of money-laundering violations. For its part, Imperial Pacific unfailingly says everything is above board. The company pays $20 million a year into a community fund and another $15 million a year to the Marianas pension fund. A one-time $10 million sweetener covered the electricity bills of all Saipan residents. Corruption of local officials has been alleged.

Imperial Pacific is building a $550 million 400-room resort on Saipan. In April, the company received extensions on the completion of construction and the operation of Best Sunshine. Imperial’s further $7 billion expansion plans on Saipan call for 20 more hotels, 11 more casinos, 300 villas, a 600-seat theater,
10,000 square-meters of retail, and a theme park. In April 2017, the FBI searched the resort construction site and made an arrest relating to the workplace visa system. Hundreds of undocumented Chinese workers and other arrests relating to the unlawful employment of aliens have been made in the CNMI. An April 2017 GAO report indicates that foreign workers are half of CNMI’s workforce and thousands more are needed at least through 2019. The report recommends raising the cap on the number of work permits allowed. Given the number of overstayed visas in the U.S., one may reasonably ask whether the entire exercise constitutes back-door colonization by the Chinese to displace the U.S. from a strategic part of the Pacific which has been under American protection for decades.

So the first explanation for the strange happenings on Saipan – financial - may feed into the second – military and strategic. Chinese expansionism may account for the influx of Chinese money and workers. Prizes to be won include control of the Gateway to the Pacific, the conquest of Taiwan, domination of commercial shipping in the South China Sea, flipping the Philippines to the Chinese sphere of influence, tipping the balance of power in the region, and a stepping stone to world domination (more on the latter in the next issue of The Truth).

In Anti-Access/Area Denial: The Evolution of Modern Warfare, Major Christopher J. McCarthy, U.S. Air Force argues that China has acquired significant capability to frustrate American military superiority and deny safe deployment in the Pacific theater, things America unquestionably enjoyed in recent wars. Chinese missiles can disrupt U.S. military operations from Okinawa to Guam (which is near CNMI). Air defenses and submarines also give China the ability to attack aircraft carriers and prevent other U.S. ships from safely entering the theater. “Attempts to deploy into theater and to gain air and maritime superiority likely will result in loss of life and materiel to levels not experienced since World War II,“ McCarthy writes.

Another report - CHINA’s A2/AD STRATEGY IN THE HEART OF THE SECOND ISLAND CHAIN (author and online source unknown to The Truth) – asserts that China is successfully projecting power through commercial and diplomatic activity in the Central Pacific. While the U.S. is endeavoring to redistribute military assets long held on Okinawa throughout the Central Pacific, China hints that an escalating U.S. military presence in the area would be counter-productive to Chinese investments there. China is acquiring large tracts of land for golf course and - none dare call them - ghost hotels. It is purchasing fishing rights, building ports, coddling local officials and awarding college scholarships to their offspring. These activities are just a hop, skip, and a jump from U.S. naval facilities on Guam and U.S. missile sites on Kwajalein in the Marshalls. In 2016, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued a report entitled “China’s Expanding Ability to Conduct Conventional Missile Strikes on Guam”. Through multitudinous means, China is aggressively trying to squeeze the U.S. out of the Central Pacific, the report asserts. One consequence of losing influence in the Central Pacific is Micronesian leaders playing the China card in dealings with U.S. officials.

Part of the backdrop to this story is China’s aggressiveness in building artificial islands and airstrips in the South China Sea. Beijing invariably issues vehement and bellicose statements when challenged by the U.S. for these activities – the U.S. is sowing “chaos”, “war is inevitable”, etc.

The game has clearly changed. The question is just how far Chinese ambitions extend – regional power? World domination? The Truth takes up this question in the next issue.

Part 2:

Chinese Takeover of the Central Pacific Not on Washington’s Radar

Two issues back, The Truth reported on China’s activities in the strategic Central Pacific (Saipan, Northern Marianas, etc.), activities which look an awful lot like colonization of what have been American protectorates for decades. The Truth subsequently interviewed a foreign policy expert with long experience in Washington. The expert was aware of the situation and told The Truth that we got it exactly right. The expert was really taken aback to see our story in print because nobody in professional circles is talking about this. When asked what the conversation is among foreign policy experts about the Chinese takeover, our source said, “There is no conversation.” Some lower level people are aware of the situation, but most higher-ups in the foreign policy establishment have no idea what’s happening, the expert said.

The expert also told The Truth that a Chinese takeover of the Central Pacific is “inevitable”. China is a big country with big ambitions and lots of money to throw at these poor, tiny little islands. America has been foolish not to see this coming, the expert said; we should have been prepared for it 20 years ago. China, on the other hand, has a conscious strategy and exploits every opportunity that presents itself.

The Chinese takeover is happening gradually and quietly - like slow-moving lava, as the expert put it. There is no quick fix. The expert doubts that telling the Trump administration would, in and of itself, change anything. What is needed, the expert said, is a foreign policy stalwart who is willing to champion the idea of neutralizing the takeover, although the expert has no idea who that might be.

The expert is of the opinion that the fix is not in, despite the financial connections between several U.S. power players – former Governors, etc. (listed two issues back) – and a Hong Kong casino company active in the region. If the fix is not in, shouldn’t we at least have a conversation before deciding through indecision that we no longer have strategic interests in the Central Pacific and are fine with the Chinese setting up shop there?

Part 3:

China’s Ultimate Aims

Previously in The Truth (June 2015):

China’s true aims have been debated for a long time, but anyone who thinks China is benign or only has regional aspirations will have to deal with revelations of China’s secret 100-year plan, hatched under Mao in 1955, to dominate the world economically, politically, and militarily. Source: Washington Free Beacon. The details are set forth in Michael Pillsbury’s book The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. Much of what’s in the book is based on what Chinese defectors told the author. As a result of China’s decades-long strategic deception campaign, the U.S. was duped into giving China large amounts of cash, technology, and expertise that is now being used in Beijing’s efforts to supplant the U.S. as the premier global power. The plan promotes China as a new global “hegemon” leading a new global governance framework while exporting its authoritarian political system and predatory economic practices across the globe. Writings by Chinese hardliners reveal their intent to elevate order over freedom and elite rule over democracy. Militarily, China is building “assassin’s mace” weapons to knock out satellites and aircraft carriers, including electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons. A 2015 Chinese defense white describes its military’s global mission, shifting emphasis from “from theater defense to trans-theater mobility.” Source: The Diplomat
Former Canadian minister for the Asia-Pacific and Member of Parliament David Kilgour, put it bluntly. “There’s little doubt that the Beijing party-state’s long term goal is world domination and to put the United States — as much as it can — out of business, and to become the world’s sole superpower,” he told The New American in 2010. “The Beijing Party crowd want to run the whole planet.”” Kilgour reaffirmed this view in a recent interview with The Truth.

Here are more statements by Chinese official documenting that the Chinese are not content to be a regional power but are instead striving for world domination. The statements were compiled by Nevin Gussack, author of Sowing the Seeds of Our Destruction: Useful Idiots on the Right. (headings and emphasis added by The Truth)

World Domination

“We must control the earth.” Mao Tse-tung, 1956
“In the future we will set up the Earth Control Committee, and make a uniform plan for the Earth.” Mao Tse-tung, 1958
“In history, the Western powers used warships and opium to colonize China. Now the opposite has happened. We will use our open policy, seize the economic crisis in the West as a historical moment, and use effective measures to turn them into Socialist China’s economic and cultural colonies…Our colonization of these countries is the historical process of communism’s triumph over rotten capitalism. We Chinese communists must shoulder the great historical mission, and use socialism to defeat capitalism, eventually liberating the entire humanity with Communism.” Hu Jintao in a Meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo and Central Military Commission, February 2008
“…we will not hesitate to fight a Third World War, so as to lead the people to go out and to ensure the Party’s leadership position. In any event, we, the CCP, will never step down from the stage of history! We’d rather have the whole world, or even the entire globe, share life and death with us than step down from the stage of history!!!...Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization. Therefore, solving the ‘issue of America’ is the key to solving all other issues…this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP…We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them. Second, after solving the ‘issue of America,’ the Western countries in Europe would bow to us, not to mention to Taiwan, Japan and other small countries.” General Chi Haotian, secret speech 2015

Targeting the U.S.

“From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half of the United States to be China’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese. But would this work? If this strategy does not work, then there is only one choice left to us. That is, use decisive means to ‘clean up’ America, and reserve America for our use in a moment. Our historical experience has proven that as long as we make it happen, nobody in the world can do anything about us. Furthermore, if the United States as the leader is gone, then other enemies have to surrender to us…If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack (on the United States), the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States. If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the United States, China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish. That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities…It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP.” General Chi Haotian, secret speech 2015
According to GRU Colonel Stanislav Lunev, the Russian Generals “were still committed to fighting and winning a future nuclear war against America. ‘The nuclear war plan is still on,’ he was told. But there would be changes. No longer would Russian troops be responsible for a follow-up invasion of the lower 48 states (U.S. mainland). Russian forces would be responsible for occupying ‘Alaska and parts of Canada.’ The Chinese would occupy the lower 48 states. In addition, certain Third World countries would be given ‘looting rights.’” J.R. Nyquist, as told to him by GRU Colonel Stanislav Lunev
In 2010, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Major General Luo Yuan noted that China could attack the United States through “oblique means and stealthy feints… For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds…Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counterpunches covering politics, military affairs, diplomacy and economics to treat both the symptoms and root cause of this disease.” Quoted from Bill Gertz, Washington Times February 10, 2010
John Tkacik, a former State Department China specialist, reported that “The Chinese military now believes that China has tremendous economic and financial leverage, especially over the United States, and they are giving fair warning to the world that they will use it when they can.” Quoted from Bill Gertz, Washington Times February 10, 2010
In 2007, China’s state-owned media described Beijing’s control over American debt and their dollar holdings as a “nuclear option.” Quoted from Chinascope November 10, 2011

Preparing for War

“If the U.S. forces lose thousands of men under our powerful strikes, the anti-war sentiment within their country will force the U.S. government to take the same path as they did in Vietnam… So far we have built up the capability for the second and third nuclear strikes and are fairly confident in fighting a nuclear war. The PCC (Communist Party Central Committee) has decided to pass through formal channels this message to the top leaders in the US.” Watching Closely for Changes in Relationships with Taiwan and Enhancing Awareness of Military Leadership of Current Situation, People’s Liberation Army Office of the Central Military Command, August 1999
“This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy’s strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force…Because the Midwest states of the U.S. are sparsely populated, in order to increase the lethality, (our) nuclear attacks should mainly target the key cities on the West Coast of the United States, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego…The 12 JL-2 nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans…If we launch our DF 31A ICBMs over the North Pole, we can easily destroy a whole list of metropolises on the East Coast and the New England region of the U.S., including Annapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Baltimore and Norfolk, whose population accounts for about one-eighth of America’s total residents…Our JL-2 SLBMs have become the fourth type of Chinese nuclear missiles that threaten the continental United States, after our DF-31A, DF-5A and DF-5B ICBMs.” Quoted from the Chinese Communist newspaper Global Times October 2013
“Seen from the changes in the world situation and the United States’ hegemonic strategy for creating monopolarity, war is inevitable. We cannot avoid it. The issue is that the Chinese armed forces must control the initiative in this war…We must be prepared to fight for one year, two years, three years or even longer.” General Chi Haotian, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, December 1999
“(As for the United States), for a relatively long time it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance…We must conceal our abilities and bide our time.” Lieutenant General Mi Zhenyu, 1996