What now, CNMI?

I may be blind and naive but can someone explain to me the national security issue with Chinese tourism on our small island in the western Pacific? There doesn’t seem to be a problem with the deluge of people pouring across the border in the southern states. You name the countries and they are coming to the United States—hundreds of countries.

If you support the open borders, would you apply that here? The Chinese do have passports to get to Saipan. The Chinese want to park their money outside of China.

So where are we going to get our economic development? Koreans have been our bread and butter but no boom.

Our bubble economy is over. No more flood of Japanese/Chinese/Korean investors. The boom comes from investors. They are gone for the most part. So we need tourists. We are a tourist economy. The boom for the CNMI came when there were lots of investments.

Where will our next boom come from? The military? The development of Tinian is Tinian. The infrastructure is for the military. We are in for a long hard ride. What is out there to stimulate our economy?

Del Benson

Capital Hill, Saipan

Letter