Forget China: the U.S. is Its own worst enemy
Pacific Island countries see U.S. treatment of the Marshall Islands as fundamentally unjust – not only in the past, but in the present – and it has severely damaged their perceptions of the United States.
The United States is competing with China for influence and access in the Pacific Islands, a region that could play a crucial role in winning a war in Asia, much as it did during World War II. In September 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to strengthen ties with the region and “counter Beijing”.
But most leaders in Washington overlook the gravest impediment to U.S. foreign policy in the Pacific Islands. It’s not China’s strength, but the United States’ weakness: in particular, its failure to address the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing in the region.
The United States conducted 67 nuclear and thermonuclear tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, equivalent to detonating 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for those 12 years. The Marshallese people are still grappling with the effects, including cancer and other health problems, environmental contamination, and indefinite displacement from uninhabitable islands.
The region is watching. Pacific Island countries see U.S. treatment of the Marshall Islands as fundamentally unjust – not only in the past, but in the present – and it has severely damaged their perceptions of the United States.
In August, Western media zeroed in on the Pacific Islands Forum, Oceania’s top regional organisation, after removed Taiwan’s name from its joint communique. But missing from the headlines is something that should matter far more to U.S. policymakers: how the forum talks about the United States.
As the islands’ main platform for cooperation, the Pacific Islands Forum is key to understanding the region. So it’s significant that after member states welcomed Washington’s climate funding, they pointed to U.S. injustice toward the Marshall Islands. They agreed to continue “bilateral, regional and multilateral action” to support the Marshall Islands in achieving “a justified resolution” to U.S nuclear testing.
In March 2024 the then-Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Henry Puna, visited the Marshall Islands for the 70th anniversary of the United States’ largest test, Castle Bravo. That single detonation was 1,000 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb.
Puna said in his address that the the U.S. must be held accountable, emphasising the “overwhelming foreign disrespect” of nuclear powers that used the Pacific as a testing ground. He described U.S efforts to resolve the nuclear legacy as having been “inadequate” and “therefore remain unfinished.”
China Environment News sees only ongoing United States arrogance and no meaningful signs that it is willing tom listen to the region’s collective voice.
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The above post is based on an edited version of an article that appeared in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier on October 10, 2024.
https://www.postcourier.com.pg/forget-china-in-the…/