US-China battle for dominance extends across Pacific, above and below the sea
- Even the US’ Mariana Islands are caught up in Washington and Beijing’s simmering power struggle in the region
- From unprecedented deep-sea research in the Mariana Trench to what was the world’s most lucrative casino operation, China’s influence is growing in an area once essential for American power projection
The Mariana Islands in the north-western Pacific, comprising the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam, were once seen as “the tip of the spear” of American power projection in the region – but China’s influence is growing across the area through deep-sea research and what was once the world’s most lucrative casino.
“Wars and conflicts never start on Fifth Avenue, they start in places of limited strategic consequence [such as the Mariana Islands],” said Patrick Gerard Buchan, fellow at the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “That is where great powers rub up against each other.”
Wars and conflicts never start on Fifth Avenue, they start in places of limited strategic consequence
The US territories – a 15-hour flight from California and just five hours by air from Beijing – are scattered across the Pacific along the western edge of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on the planet.
“It is around these islands that the line of spheres of influence between the [US and China] are being drawn,” said Lyle Goldstein, director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the US Naval War College. “The question is where does the line switch.”
“China’s activity and influence in the region has increased significantly,” said Jian Zhang, director of China engagement, UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. “That will have far-reaching consequences for the region’s politics and security. China has become very interested in the region which used to be called ‘the American lake’ or ‘Australia’s backyard’.”
Part of China’s new-found interest is undersea exploration, giving it an exceptional degree of knowledge about an area that has been an important US military outpost since the second world war.
More than a quarter of Guam is occupied by two US military bases, and its residents serve in the military at a rate three times higher than any US state. There has been a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system on Guam since 2013 – the same system deployed in South Korea with US assistance in 2016, angering China – and the island has been periodically threatened as a target for North Korean nuclear weapons over the last five years.