Are CCP agents and Chinese nationals gathering intelligence on U.S. military installations in Guam now?

Original article here.

HAGÅTÑA, GUAM – Top Republican lawmakers have expressed growing concerns over a visa “loophole” that potentially allows Chinese nationals to gather intelligence on U.S. military installations in Guam, a U.S. territory located in the western Pacific Ocean.

In 2019, the Biden administration enacted a policy allowing Chinese nationals to visit the Northern Mariana Islands for 14 days without a visa.

Since then, there has been a notable increase in the number of Chinese nationals reported to have chartered boats from the Northern Mariana Islands to Guam, raising alarms about potential espionage activities targeting sensitive U.S. military sites on the island.

Guam’s homeland security agency has reported 118 “unlawful or attempted unlawful entries by Chinese citizens” since 2022.

This influx of unauthorized entries has heightened concerns about the vulnerability of Guam, which hosts the Navy’s only submarine base in the western Pacific and a strategically important air base with bombers and fighter jets.

Sen. Joni Ernst, a prominent Republican lawmaker, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., has taken action to address these concerns.

They wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, urging the administration to reconsider the visa policy and close the existing loopholes that allow unauthorized access to sensitive military installations.

“We’re trying to close those loopholes. I just think it’s very, very important that we do this,” said Ernst.

The concerns raised by Ernst and other lawmakers come at a time when public sentiment regarding China’s influence on U.S. national security is at a heightened state.

A survey released during the annual Reagan National Defense Forum revealed that 51% of Americans consider China to be the “greatest threat to the U.S.

This sentiment underscores the growing apprehension among policymakers and the general public about China’s expanding global influence, both economically and militarily.

Furthermore, Congress is currently engaged in negotiations over the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a critical piece of legislation that sets the defense budget and policy priorities for the U.S. military.

Discussions have been focused on stripping out “woke” policies introduced by the Biden Department of Defense, which some lawmakers argue are distracting from core national security objectives.

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, has echoed Ernst’s concerns about the potential impact of these policies on military readiness and effectiveness.

The visa policy loopholes, internal congressional disputes over military promotions, and public concern about China’s influence on U.S. national security present challenges for policymakers.

As Congress continues to discuss these issues, bipartisan cooperation and constructive dialogue are important to address the implications for the U.S. military and its operations in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

“Count on the Chinese Communist Party to exploit every potential vulnerability on the map. What the CCP is doing in Guam is almost certainly no exception,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., asserted to DailyMail.com. “The United States maintains a significant military presence on the island, a vital outpost for helping America defend our strategic interests in the region.”

Continuing, Green noted the “surging numbers of Chinese nationals coming into Guam” should raise “major cause for concern, in part because we simply do not know for what purpose these individuals are coming.”

Green squarely places the blame on the Biden administration, alleging that its policies have allowed the CCP to “sense weakness” and subsequently “take advantage” of the situation.

“It’s not just the rising numbers of Chinese nationals illegally crossing our Southwest border that demands attention—what’s happening in Guam does, as well.”