Newscasts - The tiny island paradise at the epicenter of a titanic geo-political struggle
30/04/2025 10:54
Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_4pqmdzs7&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2025:newsml_RW028929042025RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts Source: 'Reuters - General news videos' Description: Palau is a small island chain in the Pacific Ocean that is a key piece in a U.S. strategy to project power in the region and contain China. A Reuters special report has uncovered how individuals and groups linked to China are waging an intense influence campaign with money and land. Pete McKenzie reports. Short Link: https://refini.tv/42NtDdf Video Transcript: We've just arrived in Palau, a small island chain on the far edge of the Pacific Ocean. It bills itself as a pristine paradise. It's 300-odd islets boast beautiful beaches, lush vegetation. And you can frequently hear the crow of roosters. But rusty tanks and ruined fortifications like this Japanese command center are dotted about the jungle, many the sites of bloody World War II battles. Some 12,000 US Marines were killed or injured in operations to wrest this territory from Japan in 1944. It's partly why the United States cares so much about what happens to Palau. It's a key piece of the second island chain, a string of strategically located islets that America is fortifying in an effort to deny China access to the Western Pacific. Whoever controls these spots of land can control shipping, the movement of militaries, and ultimately, who wields influence in this region. I'm Reuters correspondent Pete McKenzie, and I visited the archipelago to get a sense of what was really happening on the ground here in a geopolitical contest for regional supremacy between the United States and China, a contest that has transformed to this once sleepy island nation into a hub of illegal activity. Much of that is allegedly linked to Chinese individuals and syndicates, according to intelligence reports, video footage, and land records reviewed by Reuters, as well as interviews with more than 20 diplomats and local law enforcement officials. Joel Ehrendreich is the US ambassador to Palau. What's taking place in Palau is what we've seen again throughout the region. It's the playbook, if you will, for how China tries to use its elements of power to influence foreign countries. China says these claims are "far-fetched" and "fabricated nonsense." The US was smearing and slandering China, the foreign ministry in Beijing told us. We've just arrived in Angaur, one of Palau's most southern states and also the site of one of the US's most important developments here, a radar station and potentially an airstrip. But there appears to be a coordinated effort underway to hamper the expansion of American military installations in the country. First, though, we need to talk about land. Land on Palau is everything so important that foreigners can't own it outright. Instead, they can lease us for decades at a time. And those leases have proliferated with hundreds of thousands of square meters leased by Chinese nationals in the provinces of Angaur and Kayangel, two places that have something in common US military developments. The US ambassador believes this is part of a Chinese effort to keep an eye on America's actions on the island. If you look at a map of Angaur today, where we are building our over the horizon radar facility, all around there are various plots of land that are now being leased to Chinese interests with no development taking place. China didn't respond to specific questions we put to them about the land leases. The intrigue here goes beyond the control of land around airstrips. It seems Chinese individuals have also used land deals and donations to grow close to some local government. I've just spent several hours on the side of the and court and Palau, and by diving through the troves of documents there, we've been able to identify, among other things, that Hunter Tian, China's main affiliate on the island, has negotiated at least two major deals with members of the country's political elites. Hunter Tian didn't reply to questions we sent to his lawyer. Later, we reviewed US intelligence reports that alleged that Chinese business people on the island had given tens of thousands of dollars to some of its most senior politicians, many of whom work out of the country's Congress, an institution whose name translates to the House of Whispers. It's not just politicians tied to Chinese individuals who benefit from foreign deals, though. A company registered under the name of the father of Palau's president has been awarded at least 41 US Department of Defense contracts, worth about $6 million, according to a Reuters review of a federal database. We sent questions to the president's office, but didn't get a reply. The Great Power struggle here has left some of Palau's 17,000 inhabitants, wondering where they stand if the situation escalates. It just makes me worry. I mean, Palau is so small, and it makes me I think you just feel like they're using you as a war shield. Ann Singeo is Palau's most prominent environmentalist. And if ever a war happens on the land islands of Palau, that'll be the end of us. Others are focused on what they see as the crimes being perpetrated by Chinese individuals and groups, some with links to the Chinese government. Recently, an individual with connections to Chinese state-controlled economic agencies and universities allegedly tried to smuggle $119,000 into Palau. And when he was questioned, the president of the country's Senate allegedly called to ask that he be released. The Senate president told us he didn't recall the incident. Since 2019, hundreds of foreign nationals from China, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian nations have traveled to Palau to work in online gambling and scam centers on the island. Despite regular busts by local law enforcement, the centers have continued to thrive here, where police capacity is limited. These illicit operations have in turn fueled a boom in methamphetamine trafficking, prostitution, and violent crime. Police files show that in 2023, a Chinese national accused by US prosecutors of smuggling methamphetamines surfaced in Palau. One evening, he met with the Chinese boat captain at a local apartment building, according to the police files. Security footage from that night, the date and location of which Reuters has verified, shows three men leaving that building, struggling with a suitcase, which they load into the back of a black car. The next day, police files reveal the suitcase was discovered with the boat captain's dead body, which had been set on fire in the countryside. According to a security briefing for Palau's president, the murder was motivated by a dispute over transporting drugs, humans, and possibly weapons between Guam and Saipan. The Chinese suspect accepted a plea deal and was convicted on a manslaughter charge. Push to show that maybe the criminal arm of these people is quite long, and they can reach here. They can do whatever they want with impunity. Leilani Reklai is the editor of Island Times, Palau's primary newspaper. Here in Palau, China have their own, their own law, their own way of enforcing their own laws. Palauan authorities have taken steps in recent months to combat Chinese organized crime. In December, the president empowered his national security advisor to scrutinize visa applications and renewals by foreign nationals. China's foreign ministry told us Beijing had no interest in interfering in Palau's internal affairs, and that it wasn't China that wanted to turn Palau into a strategic military outpost. The United States should stop provoking trouble in the region, the ministry said. Palau is tiny, and the PRC is huge. What I think we need to do is the United States and other like-minded partners to support these countries who are willing and increasingly able to stand up to that kind of threat. I think we're just starting to see how effective we might be able to be together.