First Posted: 2/15/2015
FEBRUARY 14, 2015 — Yet another indication that China is no friend of the United States is its interest in using the Hawaiian independence movement to stir backyard trouble for America as the Obama administration increases its military and diplomatic emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
Pentagon consultant Michael Pillsbury, author of the new book “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower,” says Chinese military “hawks” have told him they’d arm Hawaiian independence activists to retaliate for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
And during 2012 talks about territorial tensions in the South China Sea, a Chinese official mentioned the idea of China claiming Hawaii, according to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Though the movement that seeks to reverse the 1893 U.S. overthrow of Hawaii’s monarchy has been peaceful to date, one independence group’s “foreign minister” admits meeting with Chinese representatives. If the movement gains traction, it would cloud the future of national security assets in Hawaii that are key to the U.S. Asia-Pacific “rebalance” that worries China — Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hickam Air Force Base and the Army’s Schofield Barracks, which command a combined 265,000 military and civilian personnel, plus a major NSA listening post.
At best, China is a U.S. “frenemy” — and America must treat it as the hostile rival it is.
