I had to shake my head at this headline:
According to the report:
The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command supports reactivating the naval airbase at Adak, a remote Cold War station in the Aleutian Islands - but the U.S. military isn't the only interested party, according to Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). An unnamed Chinese shipping company has also reached out to the current landowner to express interest in negotiating a lease, Sullivan said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.
Adak was a key naval base throughout the Cold War, providing a logistics and surveillance hub near Russia's eastern shores. After the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process in the mid-1990s, it was shut down, and it ceased operations in 1997. The land is now held by the native Aleut Corporation.
. . .
The U.S. military still holds occasional exercises at Adak, and talk of reviving the base has circulated since at least 2021 ... Adak would be a natural location for an enhanced U.S. deterrent presence, Sen. Sullivan said Thursday ... "But you know who checks in with them once a year?" Sullivan asked. "It's a Chinese shipping company that is, certainly, in my view, a front company for the [Chinese military]. So how embarrassing would it be to the Pentagon or the Navy . . . if somehow they signed [a] 100 year lease with a quote 'Chinese shipping company' that always is out there looking at Adak?"
There's more at the link.
I've seen that move many times before in Africa, first from the former Soviet Union, and more recently from China. They may know that an overtly military presence would attract unwelcome Western opposition, but a "purely commercial endeavor" might be overlooked. There are many places around the world where a foreign company has leased a port, or established a mine, or built a factory, only for it to become a center for economic exploitation (as bad as colonialism ever was), or an espionage center, or a major presence that destabilizes an entire region. China is doing that across the Pacific Ocean at present, trying to buy influence with the tiny island nations there by offering buckets of money to build up a port (for "fishing", of course), or establish a major airport to "improve communications". In the event of things getting heated on the geopolitical front, those would become military bases - perhaps whether the host country liked it or not. Fly in a few planeloads of heavily armed troops without any advance notice or warning, and no tiny island nation will be able to withstand them. The fuss would be over in less than a few hours.
China wouldn't do that on Adak, of course: it's US territory. However, as a base to monitor submarine traffic, and send trawlers into one of the world's great fishing and crabbing grounds, and generally cause difficulties for Alaska and the West Coast, it has tremendous potential. If they make the financial offer attractive enough, even a patriotic tribe like the Aleuts would find it very hard to resist temptation.
Peter
8 comments:
Adak had zero viability after the Cold War ended and was mostly a front for long range eavesdropping on the USSR.
It was also a convenient place for Navy and Coast Guard ships to refuel and replenish while patrolling the Bering Sea. My Coast Guard ship pulled in there a couple of times on each Bering Sea patrol. I saw video of the place not long ago and couldn't believe how quickly nature reclaimed that place!!! Most of the buildings were torn to shreds by the winds!
Adak was considered an "accompanied" billet in the Navy and Marines, meaning that the families accompanied the servicemen there. I couldn't IMAGINE subjecting my family to four years on that rock!!! 'Middle of nowhere, NOTHING to do, and AWFUL weather!!! Adak was the only place we ported where the ship took rolls while moored up!!!
As for the Chinese, it should be ILLEGAL for them or ANY foreign entity to own or lease land ANYWHERE in the United States or its territories!!!
Because the Communist Chinese Government has such an invasive control over every single Chinese business, it should be a no-brainer that NOT ONE square foot of US soil be sold or under ANY control of ANY Chinese-based business.
Adak will be reopened by the US Navy.
Meh. Lease it to China.
Have Customs impound every cubic foot of gear brought in, and hold it for a thorough technical investigation, where it gets peeled back to the nuts and bolts, photographed, and thoroughly tested before releasing it for use.
China will lose interest in about 5 minutes, and pay for the privilege.
This sickens me. My fIrst duty station was NAVCOMMSTA ADAK.
I was way up north of there a lot on a destroyer and we never went near Adak. That's what UNREP was all about. We were only up there looking for boomers and so it was really nothing more than a Cold War blister. War is over. There is nothing at all worth our time or money that far out the chain. We don't have to have a base there to express our dominance, just the will. We don't the will or the ships right now.
It was great when my father was stationed there. I still miss it at times. The wild beauty, the wilder weather, family, and good friends. What more is needed?
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