China’s waves hit our shores

The Commonwealth is no stranger to east versus west military turmoil. So when China reportedly threatens to fire nuclear missiles at “U.S. bases in the Pacific,” it’s an attention getter.

The China/Nuke scare comes on the heels of Taiwan’s elections, and comes via the on-line Drudge Report. The Drudge Report is often first with the news, though it has speed at the cost of accuracy sometimes. The Chinese threats are reported by Drudge to have been made in the Haowangjiao Weekly, a newspaper that’s said to be an organ of the Army. I’ve not seen this report carried anywhere else, so we’ll have to wait and see what pans out.

Still, it sure is food for thought. I know the CNMI doesn’t have any active military bases, but Guam sure does, and that’s plenty close when you’re talking about nukes.

China’s economic and social woes–not nearly stuff of Nuke scale–have certainly made waves here. Remember the desperate boat people, and the compound on Tinian where they were warehoused? Hopefully China’s nuclear missiles are as rusty as its boats are.

Those powerful radio transmitters recently built on Tinian are aimed at China, beaming, essentially, U.S. information (er… propaganda) to the Chinese masses. Come to think of it, how fitting that the Chinese boat people “escaped” to the very island from which we’re broadcasting our point of view to China.

I’d call that pretty effective broadcasting.

If military tensions pertaining to China get more strained, the CNMI’s Asia-Pacific location will attract more attention from Uncle Sam.

War with China has always been a theoretical possibility, but China’s nutcase belligerence is really something to ponder. Sure, it’s just all a bunch of noise and huff and puff, but it does remind us of the fact that we’ve got nuclear capable nation that ain’t always friendly.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s stock market keeps getting clobbered, as the place gets spooked by China’s menacing words. That’s rotten timing for the CNMI, given that we’ve just been talking about getting regular air service between our fair rock and theirs, which was a happy prospect for the tourism industry.

China is, of course, a major source of our labor, so the CNMI and China are economically linked.

Add to that the boat people, our growing (hopefully) economic links to Taiwan, and our obvious role as a somewhat strategically located place, there’s no doubt that turmoil with China is going to make waves down here as well.

Hopefully, the generals in China will chill out, everyone will calm down, and the world can get back to business as usual. But if it’s really circulating nuclear threats, that’s some big news.

I doubt that China has the delivery systems to be considered a strategic nuclear player, so Americans probably don’t need to start digging bomb shelters right away. Here in the CNMI though, our social, economic, and military contexts are tied to the situation, and if China makes waves, they’ll hit our shores first.