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Most Americans know about the nations in the vast South and Western Pacific mainly from the island-hopping battles of World War II. The countries are still crucial to America’s defense, and so the Biden Administration’s U.S.-Pacific Islands Country Summit this week is a welcome event. The key is convincing Pacific leaders that the U.S. is there to stay.
The region has become a theater for U.S.-China competition, as Beijing builds a blue-water Navy and global network of bases to project power. Chinese dominance in the region would complicate America’s ability to defend the so-called first island chain that includes Taiwan and Japan. And it would make the U.S. bases in Guam more vulnerable.
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