The administration of United States President Donald Trump has sanctioned two leaders of Pacific island nations for alleged corruption, accusing them both of creating openings for China to increase its influence in the region.
On Tuesday, the US Department of State issued a notice alleging that the president of Palau’s Senate, Hokkons Baules, and a former mayor in the Marshall Islands, Anderson Jibas, had engaged in “significant corruption”.
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Neither they nor their families will henceforth be allowed to enter the US, according to the statement.
“The Trump Administration will not allow foreign public officials to steal from U.S. taxpayers or threaten U.S. interests,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on social media.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) also postedits support for the sanctions.
“Corruption that hurts U.S. interests will be met with significant consequences,” it said.
In both cases, the US credited the politicians’ actions with allowing the expansion of Chinese interests in the Pacific region.
The State Department alleged that Baules took bribes in exchange for supporting Chinese interests in Palau, an island in Micronesia that is the 16th smallest country in the world.
“His actions constituted significant corruption and adversely affected U.S. interests in Palau,” the US said in its statement.
Jibas, meanwhile, stands accused of “orchestrating and financially benefitting from” schemes to misuse the Bikini Resettlement Trust, a US-backed fund designed to compensate those negatively affected by nuclear bomb testing on the Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands.
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The trust was worth nearly $59m in 2017, when the first Trump administration decided to hand control of the main resettlement fund to local authorities and relinquish its authority to audit.
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Since then, the fund has emptied precipitously. As of February 2023, the trust had plummeted to a mere $100,000, and payments to Bikini Atoll survivors and descendants have ceased.
Critics have blamed Jibas, who was elected in 2016 to lead the Kili, Bikini and Ejit islands as mayor. He campaigned on having more local autonomy over the fund.
But reports in The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets accused him of misappropriating the funds for purchases including vacations, travel and a new pick-up truck.
In Tuesday’s announcement, the State Department connected Jibas’s alleged abuse to the spread of Chinese power in the Pacific and an increase in immigration to the US, two key issues in Trump’s platform.
“The theft, misuse, and abuse of the U.S.-provided money for the fund wasted U.S. taxpayer money and contributed to a loss of jobs, food insecurity, migration to the United States,” the department wrote.
“The lack of accountability for Jibas’ acts of corruption has eroded public trust in the government of the Marshall Islands, creating an opportunity for malign foreign influence from China and others.”
Both Palau and the Marshall Islands were US territories, occupied during World War II and granted independence in the late 20th century.
They both continue to be part of a Compact of Free Association with the US, which allows the North American superpower to continue military operations in the area and control the region’s defence.
They are also part of a dwindling list of countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s government, much to the ire of the People’s Republic of China.
Only about a dozen remain, and they are largely concentrated in Central America, the Caribbean or the Pacific islands.
But China has sought to pressure those smaller countries into rupturing their ties with Taiwan and recognising its government in Beijing instead.
The Asian superpower – often seen as a rival to the US – has also attempted to expand its sphere of influence to the southern Pacific, by building trade relations and countering US military authority in the area.
Baules, for example, is among the local politicians who have advocated for recognising Beijing’s government over Taipei’s, and he is a vocal proponent for increased ties with China.
Those shifting views have placed island nations like Palau and the Marshall Islands in the midst of a geopolitical tug-of-war, as the US struggles with China to maintain dominance in the region.
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In other parts of the world, the US has also used sanctions to dissuade local officials from seeking closer ties with China.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, for instance, has accused the US embassy in his country of threatening to strip local officials of their visas, as the US and China jockey for influence over the Panama Canal.
Similar reports have emerged in neighbouring Costa Rica, where officials like lawmaker Vanessa Castro and former President Oscar Arias have accused the US of revoking their visas over ties to China.
But there have been other points of tension between the Pacific Islands and the US in recent years.
The Trump administration has withdrawn from accords designed to limit climate change and quashed international efforts to reduce emissions, straining ties with the islands, which are vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Still, the US State Department framed the sanctions on Tuesday as an effort to ensure local accountability and defend US interests in the region.
“The United States will continue to promote accountability for those who abuse public power for personal gain and steal from our citizens to enrich themselves,” it said.
“These designations reaffirm the United States’ commitment to countering global corruption affecting U.S. interests.”
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Is it the same China Gaston is encouraging countries to partner with like Antigua?
On this side the globe, we are equally as exuberant about our association, partnership and friendship with China, and we disclose, reveal and make public all our dealings with them in the media, knowing fully well that such information reaches and annoys the hell out of Washington. It is only a matter of time before we are similarly squeezed for harboring and encouraging China in this Western Hemisphere.
@Audley Phillip – So what do we do. Isn’t it the same thing America is doing? Everybody keeps saying we cannot afford to make America angry. When we really think about it, what has the US really invested in in our country? is there anything even tangible that we can say they have assisted us with? That’s just my two cents. People should be able to make their decisions and stand by it. I can’t even bother anymore. Everyday the US brings a rule that hurts the world because you stand up to them. I find it disgusting much. Tiring even!!!
Rock and a hard place….US or China? Hmmmmmm…..
@FC, I totally agree, that it’s hypocritical on the part of the US – MAGA25 Agenda headed, but their spokesperson Donald Trump.
America is still doing billions of dollars in trade with China, to include Donald Trump’s own daughter Ivanka who has several trademarks to manufacture her products in China. Chinese students are welcomed in America and presently there are about 300,000 approximately.
It’s not just about doing business with China, it’s how the Caribbean is doing business with China. The Chinese [mission] is more clandestine, hinging, towards controlling the SOVEREIGNTY (YIDA and most Chinese large scale projects shows signs of this.
Now, let’s not be foolhardy here, by asking what has America done or is doing for the Caribbean:CARICOM Region. One word will shock anyone back to reality, and that word is TOURISM. America sends and yes she sends, because if the State Department blocks US Citizens from traveling to the CARICOM region, TOURISM becomes a dead old_wife or doctor fish in a fishpot, when hauled at sea; so, yes AMERICAN DOLLARS pour into CARICOM by the BILLIONS annually. Additionally, FDI, Charitable donations, grants to the NGO’s have some connections to the US.
The question for you @FC, et al, who’re pissed at America who never Colonized these Quasi Independent Commonwealth Nations, in the Caribbean, why are we showing more hostility towards the EU and the British, the former Colonizers, some of whom are still collecting funds from our empty coffers?
At least GASSY DREAD is skanking on and knock, knock, knocking on the REPARATIONS DOOR. The fisrt thing he should do, is take da RED_🔥🔥🔥_HOTT BURNING FLAMES, and KICK_EEN, de Vatican and de Church of Windsor/England BAK DOH, to collect our first installment of REPARATIONS FUNDING!
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿 Garrat_Bastard
Vere Edwards
We will soon find out between Gaston and Trump who is Wurl Boss or Wurl Ass. This is going to be a good one
@Ras Smood – Thank you for pointing out the fact that even though the US govt doesn’t seem to do that much for us, their citizens do…in the form of tourism. Chinese will never fill our cruise port, even if we allow them to control it (if they don’t already). To my fellow Antiguans & Barbudans I say, make not mistake… in the long run, being a colony (or a military outpost) of china can never compare to being a friend of the US, even if they put their own interests first.
Trump needs to
Go suck a dick and die
When is America going to wake up and realize that they are no longer the superpower that they thought they were. In this globalized world we have many places to go and buy from that’s not America.
@Good point, appreciate you! It’s a form of thank you used by the #YG’s in da Hoode, as a sign of respect.
If you’ve being reading my comments here on ANR, you’ll observe, that I use a pseudonym #Garrat_Bastard and it’s to stir EMOTION towards cognitvity of Antiguans, some of whom view the word “Garrat”, as the same as, “Garrote”; however, this is due to phonics rather than phoenix because like Niger and Nigger, they look similar and sound similar without close mental examination, thus due to molding through indoctrination, they’ll cause some very nasty emotional and at times physical reactions.
Us #garrats are indoctrinated to solve problems by reacting emotionally by using “trial & error” instead, of the proven “scientific” method. Therefore, it’s understandable why EMOTIONS are running at fever pitch, as the USA adjusts its Foreign Policy(s) towards the CARICOM Union.
As I said, in my previous post, we in CARICOM must direct more of our venom towards the EU, Britain and the Commonwealth. Those are where our original allegiances lie, not with the USA.
It’s like blaming your adoptive parents after they’ve taken care of you, and abandoning them because you think your absent or dilinquent has [more] rights because they had sex and gave you birth. In this case [more] is subjective, rather than objective. Again, such leads to cognitivity…
In my ignorance to exuberance dance, I’ve learnt these few moves…
Z…the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.
Y…there’s a thin line between confidence and arrogance, and therein lives ignorance.
X…the Art of War is shadowed by, the Art of Deception.
W…burning your candle at both ends will end your only light source, twice as fast.
V…wisdom is found in the simplest of places.
U…U nar goh find #blak_sheep aftah dark, especially when moonlight nar shine!
Presently binging on the original Marshall Wyatt Earp.
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg 🦶🏿 Garrat_Bastard
Vere Edwards
The same situation is playing right here in Antigua. And just watch, it wouldn’t be just visa restrictions that will be put against Antiguan’s, but Antigua will soon be isolated by the US.
Do I want that, hell no, but the continued ignorance of the leader of Antigua will be to further detriment of the Antiguan people.
@The world.
I’m never wrong when it comes to my gift of discernment.
The US has already turned it’s back on Antigua, that was clearly played out in the Maduro case , and the the US hasn’t spoken to Antigua since then.
You notice you are not hearing any talks from GB about any relationship with the US, because there is none. This is why GB is peddling his narrative that more countries should seek China as a advocate, because he GB himself is beholden to the Chinese, and he knows like I know, that Trump wants nothing to do with Antigua.
Why, because GB is just as corrupt, and the US intelligence knows it.
He GB is trying to cover himself under China, because he has no choice.
But as we also witnessed in the Maduro case, that he also will be abandon just like Maduro.
Just watch..bloody idiot.
I’m a strategist, not a politician, and you and the rest were warned.
I said this just a few days ago,and I’ll say it again. The many tourist ships will soon dry up if this fool GB do not watch what he’s doing and saying. Regardless of the orange man, Americans do not take likely to those who hates them.
We are happy to share this tropical paradise with people from around the world who come in peace. Yes, the US contributes to our economy via tourism. So, does the UK and also Europe – still a large percentage arrive from those regions. We should not burn bridges with the European continent because the people living there today have learned from the past and are not necessarily of all the same behaviours as their colonizer ancestors. Also, they are probably more interested in the historical monuments here than Americans are as they have some connection to this place. The U.S. was good to us in the past. However, if we are judging, every generation should be “judged” on its own behaviour. There has been some loss of morality among Americans in recent times so one should not assume that every action of theirs will be in our best interests or that every generation deserves the same level of trust. We should always be ready to negotiate whatever is in our best interests as well at every point in history. We have to live in the present, not the past. The Chinese have helped many countries around the world for whatever purpose and we should be grateful for that. Socially, we do not necessarily subscribe to all of their systems, as we might consider ourselves more of a democratic type country, but we can learn a little from every society. All systems have their good points and their bad points. So, basically, we should continue to strive to be friends of all and enemies of none. When our friends are fighting one another, we should stay out of it other than to just pray for them and encourage them to dialogue, negotiate and find peaceful resolutions to their problems.
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