Less than five months into President Donald Trump's second term, the vestiges of the failed Biden foreign policy continue to turn up. Such missteps are no more apparent than when examining China's presence threatening US security interests – everywhere. Pick your favorite region, continent, or country. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is busy attempting to put US interests at risk. Most recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has threatened US interests in the Pacific, Africa, the Arctic, and the Caribbean. Like the "Borg" in the popular science fiction television program Star Trek: The Next Generation, which absorbs all in its path into a collective, China is on the assimilation move.
China Is Moving in Everywhere, Even the Arctic
The PRC's efforts to exert influence globally have been a nagging problem. Wherever one turns their attention to the four corners of the globe, the CCP is attempting to replace US influence. Looking North, there is China. As a Liberty Nation News report explained, "[T]he Chinese Communist Party, in its near-maniacal drive to be a dominant influence globally, now has expanded its Belt and Road initiative to include what it calls a 'Polar Silk Road.'" The conundrum facing the Trump foreign and national security policy team is that Beijing is having success. With a self-defined notion of being a "near-Arctic state," the CCP is pursuing access to new shipping routes and resources, such as oil and gas. It's not just PRC economic ventures that should worry US military planners, though. In a RAND report, What Does China's Arctic Presence Mean to the United States, the think tank explained: "Its Arctic strategy, released in October, pays particular attention to the risk of China using commercial or scientific access to the Arctic for military advantage." Furthermore, "A 2018 Arctic Policy white paper asserts that developments in the region have a vital bearing' on China and lays out Beijing's vision for utilizing the region's natural resources and shaping Arctic governance," a Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis observed. Keep in mind that "shaping Arctic governance" means creating an advantage for China.
To the East, China perceives and is taking advantage of a vacuum in US influence. Beijing's influence and footprint in Africa are pervasive, driven by its Belt and Road Initiative, trade, and exploitation of national resources. According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in sub-Saharan Africa, "[T]he People's Republic of China has supplanted the United States and the European Union as a trading partner." Additionally, the PRC has eclipsed both the US and European Union in merchandise trading, claiming "25.6 percent of the trade compared to 10 percent for the United States and 8 percent for the European Union." Furthermore, when it comes to China's mere presence, the FPRI observed the US "feared that an increase in China's economic clout to enable it to deter countries from going against China's interests and would grant China access to ports that would give its military more power projection capability."
According to a recent article in Breaking Defense, "As the US prepares African nations to rely less on Washington's help, China is attempting to 'replicate every type of thing' the US military does to build and maintain relationships on the continent." Breaking Defense reported that US Africa Command's leader, General Michael Langley, told reporters, "They're trying to replicate what we do best in our IMET [International Military Education and Training] program, and then they also said they're going to increase security and training in a number of countries." With the training of the militaries of African countries comes the capability to shape governments.
While the Biden administration was worrying about US investments in transgender propaganda in Columbia and Peru, it seems the PRC was busy as well on the other side of the globe. Real Clear Defense reprinted a Substack essay by Commander Salamander (a pseudonym) that is a cautionary perspective. Salamander asks the sobering question, "Ready to Defend Guam…from the South?" It seems that China is in cahoots with the president of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Something fishy is going on when the FSM President Wesley W. Simina, on May 2, 2025 "reaffirmed the FSM's deep appreciation for the enduring partnership between the FSM and the United States…emphasized that this partnership is not only strategic, but also personal, rooted in shared history, values, and mutual respect." Clearly embracing the concept of "mutual respect," Simina on May 16 said, "his country looks forward to deepening cooperation with China in the years ahead...[thanking] the Chinese government and people for their selfless assistance to the development of the FSM…" What Simina is grateful for is the CCP's honchoing a reconstruction of the airport and runway on the FSM atoll of Falalop, Woleai, just a 360-nautical-mile cruise missile throw south of Guam. At the May 26 groundbreaking for the new airport, China was there. President Simina participated. But the enduring partner, the US, was not.
Beijing Is Not on a Caribbean Vacation
Lastly, we need only look southward to experience Beijing intruding very close to America's back porch. The CCP has put a full-court press on the Caribbean and Central America to bring those US neighbors into its orbit. "President Xi Jinping vowed on Tuesday [May 13] to boost China's footprint in Latin America and the Caribbean with a new $9 billion credit line and fresh infrastructure investment, although Brazil warned the region not to become overly reliant on foreign funding," Reuters reported. Congress has taken notice. "China's global economic and diplomatic muscle flexing in the Caribbean has serious implications for U.S. national security," Politico explained. Following an investigative tour of Guyana, Suriname, and Barbados, the House Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (R-TX), referencing the Biden administration, Crawford told Politico, "We have taken our eye off the ball in our hemisphere, and that has allowed an entrée for the Chinese to fill that void, and they've done it pretty masterfully, right under our nose."
Communist China appears to be gobbling up real estate faster than the Borg assimilated the people and planets. The PRC's Belt and Road encroachment in the Caribbean and Latin America, Micronesia, Africa, and the Arctic sounds the alarm, signaling a coordinated strategy to expand economic, military, and geopolitical influence. The intention is to exclude the US from protecting its equities. Unfortunately, it's working.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
