Some fear that China could win from US spat with Marshall Islands

An aerial photo shows a small section of the atoll that has slipped beneath the water line only showing a small pile of rocks at low tide on Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 8. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. - AP Photo/Rob Griffith
An aerial photo shows a small section of the atoll that has slipped beneath the water line only showing a small pile of rocks at low tide on Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 8. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. - AP Photo/Rob Griffith

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military.

But that loyalty is being tested amid a dispute with Washington over the terms of its "Compact of Free Association" agreement, which expires soon. The U.S. is refusing to engage the Marshallese on claims for environmental and health damage caused by dozens of nuclear tests it carried out in the 1940s and '50s, including a huge thermonuclear blast on Bikini Atoll.

The dispute has some U.S. lawmakers worried that China might be willing to step into the breach, adding to a bruising competition for geopolitical dominance between the two superpowers.

Since World War II, the U.S. has treated the Marshall Islands, along with Micronesia and Palau, much like territories. On the Marshall Islands, the U.S. has developed military, intelligence and aerospace facilities in a region where China is particularly active.

In turn, U.S. money and jobs have benefited the Marshall Islands' economy. And many Marshallese have taken advantage of their ability to live and work in the U.S., moving in the thousands to Arkansas, Hawaii and Oklahoma.

But this month, 10 Democratic and Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote to President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, about the U.S. compact talks with the Marshalls, Micronesia and Palau.

"It is distressing that these negotiations do not appear to be a priority -- there have been no formal meetings since this Administration began -- even as our international focus continues shifting to the Indo-Pacific," they wrote.

The lawmakers said the delays were putting the U.S. in a weaker position, and "China is all too ready to step in and provide the desperately needed infrastructure and climate resiliency investment that is sought by these long-time partners."

China's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. should face up to its responsibility to restore the environmental damage it caused with its nuclear tests. It said China was willing to engage with the Marshall Islands and other Pacific island nations on the basis of mutual respect and cooperation under the "One China Principle," in which Taiwan is viewed as part of China.

"We welcome efforts to boost economic relations and improve the quality of life between the sides," the ministry said in a statement.

China has steadily poached allies from Taiwan in the Pacific, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands in 2019. Just this week, angry protesters in the Solomons set fire to buildings and looted stores in unrest that some have linked to the China switch.

James Matayoshi, the mayor of Rongelap Atoll on the Marshall Islands, said he and hundreds of others have remained displaced from their atoll since the nuclear tests and want to see it revitalized. He said officials have been talking with potential investors from Asia, after a previous proposal by a Chinese-Marshallese businessman fell through.

Like many others on the Marshall Islands, Matayoshi believes a U.S. settlement of $150 million agreed to in the 1980s fell well short of addressing the nuclear legacy. He said his late mother was pregnant at the time of one massive nuclear blast and got exposed to radiation that was the equivalent of 25,000 X-rays before giving birth to a stillborn baby.

But the U.S. position has remained static for more than 20 years, the last time the compact came up for renegotiation. The U.S. maintains that nuclear compensation was dealt with in a "full and final settlement" and cannot be reopened.

Marshallese Senator David Paul -- who is on the islands' negotiating committee and also represents Kwajalein Atoll, which is home to a major U.S. military base -- said continuing high cancer rates and the displacement of people remain huge issues.

"Everyone knows the negotiations at that time were not fair or equitable," Paul said. "When you look at the total cost of property damage and the ongoing health issues to date, it's a drop in the bucket. It's an insult."

Various estimates put the true cost of the damage at about $3 billion, including for repairs to a massive nuclear waste facility known as the Cactus Dome which environmentalists say is leaking toxic waste into the ocean.

The U.S. State Department said the Indo-Pacific is central to U.S. foreign policy.

FILE - An aerial photo shows a small section of an atoll at Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands, on Nov. 6, 2015. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)
FILE - An aerial photo shows a small section of an atoll at Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands, on Nov. 6, 2015. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)
FILE - Natives of Bikini Atoll, scene of upcoming atomic tests, go ashore on the beach at Rongerik Atoll, their new home, after being moved in a Navy LST, on March 14, 1946. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Clarence Hamm, File)
FILE - Natives of Bikini Atoll, scene of upcoming atomic tests, go ashore on the beach at Rongerik Atoll, their new home, after being moved in a Navy LST, on March 14, 1946. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Clarence Hamm, File)
FILE - Mothers and children enjoy an afternoon game of volleyball on a beach in Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 9, 2015. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)
FILE - Mothers and children enjoy an afternoon game of volleyball on a beach in Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Nov. 9, 2015. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)
FILE - The stem of a hydrogen bomb, the first such nuclear device dropped from a U.S. aircraft, moves upward through a heavy cloud and comes through the top of the cloud, after the bomb was detonated over Namu Island in the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands on May 21, 1956. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - The stem of a hydrogen bomb, the first such nuclear device dropped from a U.S. aircraft, moves upward through a heavy cloud and comes through the top of the cloud, after the bomb was detonated over Namu Island in the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands on May 21, 1956. For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. (AP Photo, File)

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