CNMI: China Eyes Control of America's Asian Frontline

China needs to be emplaced in CNMI if it is going to take Taiwan. Usually the focus is on Guam, but widen the geographic aperture and it's clear that whatever applies to Guam, applies equally to CNMI. Beijing knows it.

- CLEO PASKAL

This story has so many crazy parts to it, it's hard to know where to start. And once you get to the end, you'll have more questions than answers. And the biggest question will be, how could Washington let this stuff happen?

WHERE?

This takes place in a part of the United States that most people don't know exists. The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are a U.S. territory just north of Guam. To the south, CNMI waters touch Guam waters, and to the north, they touch those of Japan.

The main island of CNMI is Saipan. From Saipan, it is around an eight-hour flight east to Hawaii. But it's only around four hours to Tokyo, Seoul or Taipei.

This is America's Asian frontline.

From 1914 until 1944 these islands were under Japanese control—and Tokyo considered them crucial nodes in their Inner Defence Line. That's why the battle for Saipan was one of the most brutal and desperate of the war. Japanese war planners knew if America got control, it could set up air bases on the islands and would be within bombing range of mainland Japan.

And that's exactly what happened. Once secured in 1944, Saipan's neighboring island of Tinian soon became one of the busiest airports in the world as waves of B-29 bombers took off for Japan. Until finally, almost exactly 80 years ago, the Enola Gay took off from Tinian for Hiroshima, and the world changed forever.

After the war, the people of CNMI eventually voted to join the United States—becoming the newest part of American in 1976.

Its strategic geography and non-standard labor and immigration laws meant almost from the start things got odd. And as time went on—and Beijing grew bolder—Chinese influence started to deeply penetrate and distort CNMI.

CHINESE CAN ARRIVE IN U.S. (CNMI) WITHOUT A VISA