The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Saturday spotted more than 40 Chinese vessels near Pag-asa, one of the islands occupied by Manila in the South China Sea.

Coast Guard personnel stationed on the island – also known as Thitu – reported a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessel, a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel, and 42 suspected maritime militia vessels, anchored within 4.5 to 8 nautical miles of the shore.

The PCG said this was “clearly inside the land feature’s 12-nautical mile territorial sea.”

The forces of history have entangled the U.S. Marine Corps and the island of Guam in myriad ways. The island’s main road is named “Marine Corps Drive” in honor of the 3rd Marine Division that expelled occupying Japanese troops during World War II. A significant but lesser-known connection can be found in Marine Corps expeditionary thought. Over three decades before the Marines’ “liberation” of Guam, a legendary Marine predicted Japan’s occupation of the Pacific.

In the previous issue of Ke Aupuni Update (February 25) I spoke of the tragic 130-year long disconnection from the rest of the Pacific Island nations. This is particularly lamentable since Pasifika, not America, is our real, natural family. We have begun the process to be reunited with our Pacific family.
 
Living in Hawaii, we donʻt realize how deeply colonized and enslaved we are by the American system, until we visit other Pacific Island nations.