Take the king’s coin, become the king’s man.
In his book: The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy To Replace American Order, former Brookings fellow Rush Doshi argues that China has “three sequential ‘strategies of displacement’ they will pursue at the military, political and economic levels” to lessen and eventually replace America’s clout in the world. He postulates that China could be successful because they play “the long game”
One of Beijing’s hegemonic strategies in the coming decades is to exert as much influence over the island nations of the Pacific Ocean as they possibly can. Their unsubtle plan is to follow in the United States’ footsteps in order to counter the imposing American military presence on Guam and Hawaii by gaining a foothold in the region of western Oceania known as Micronesia.
With Doshi’s prescient warning in mind, renewal of the Compacts of Free Association with Micronesia must be elevated to top priority in American foreign policy. Each Compact of Free Association (COFA) is a reciprocal agreement between the United States and one of the three countries compromising Micronesia: the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and the Republic of Palau.
Under the COFAs, the U.S. federal government guarantees financial assistance over a 15-year period for full international defense authority and responsibilities.
In non-diplomatic speak, the Compact allows the citizens of Micronesia to use the U.S. dollar as currency and to freely enter the U.S. without visas while enjoying the protection of the U.S. military, along with a steady stream of cash and a boatload of federal programs and benefits. In exchange, the U.S. government is granted access to their lands and resources — most importantly their ports and airfields — in a time of war.