their homes are being used by the us military to fight against china
2024-09-25
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the people here are becoming victims of some american politicians' efforts to uphold hegemony.
in 2016, an australian director named john pilger filmed a documentary called the coming war on china, which attracted widespread attention. the most interesting detail in the film is that director pilger not only found that the us military has or shares nearly a thousand military bases in many countries and regions around the world in order to maintain its world hegemony, but also pointed out an even more shocking situation: many of these bases are "surrounding or even aimed at" china.
in addition to exposing the u.s. military's paranoid and crazy military containment of china, a country that is developing peacefully, and debunking the u.s. government's smearing and blaming china militarily, pilger also tells an important story in his nearly two-hour documentary. that is, during the cold war and even today, in order to maintain its global hegemony, the united states has repeatedly and arbitrarily turned other people's homes into its own weapons testing sites and military bases, bringing endless suffering to local people and their homes.
the reason why brother gengzhi mentioned these situations is that now, on a small island in the south pacific that was once far away from war after world war ii, the land there is being turned into a bridgehead of war again by the us military.
this small island is tinian island, also known as tinian island, in the united states "overseas territory" commonwealth of the northern mariana islands.
this beautiful island has suffered from the poisoning of foreign colonists. before world war ii, it was colonized by spain and germany, and later occupied and colonized by the japanese. it became one of the fronts of the battle between the us and japanese forces during world war ii. although the us military drove away the japanese army, it soon turned the local people's homes into its own military base.
fortunately, after world war ii, with the change of the world's geopolitical landscape, the strategic significance of tinian island to the us military has greatly weakened. therefore, this island, which once parked a large number of us b-29 bombers and even became a "graveyard" for these bombers, has begun to return to its original beautiful natural appearance, including a major us bomber airport on the north side of tinian island during world war ii. this airport, which once parked us bombers that bombed japan with atomic bombs, was gradually covered by green plants - and this seems to reflect nature's desire for peace.
tinian island, far away from the war, also attracts tourists from all over the world to visit its natural and cultural scenery.
however, the us government in north america, far across the pacific ocean, believes that the us troops deployed in the guam base, which is 13,000 kilometers away from washington and only 4,000 kilometers away from beijing, are not enough to "defend" china. therefore, according to reports from many foreign media, since about 2022, the us military has gradually begun to build military projects on tinian island next to guam, hoping to use tinian island as a strategic alternative to guam. and since this year, the us military has begun to rebuild the world war ii bomber airport covered with green plants on the north side of the island.
judging from a recent report published in the us magazine newsweek, the us military's military engineering projects in the area have made considerable progress.
newsweek found through searching satellite images that on september 9 last year, many runways at the airport on the north side of tinian island were still covered with green plants:
but a year later, on september 3 this year, the airport's runways were already quite clear on satellite images.
although local government officials on tinian island, which is indeed economically dependent on the u.s. military, posted on the overseas social media x to welcome these u.s. military projects, saying that this will bring development to the local economy, some local indigenous people are quite worried about the u.s. military's actions.
last year, the australian broadcasting corporation reported that residents of the mariana islands, including the indigenous people of tinian island, were worried that these military projects by the us military would exacerbate the climate change problem that is already threatening their homes and would also destroy the island's unique but fragile natural environment and vegetation.
although the abc report also mentioned that the us military also claimed that they would take environmental issues into consideration, the us military commander in the region said that environmental issues were not the focus of their work, but strengthening the us military's military strength in the region was. at the same time, local government staff and environmentalists also revealed that the locals lacked the right to speak when communicating with the us military about these environmental issues, and even these communications were not open to the public.
what is even more sad is that since the indigenous people of tinian island and even the mariana islands are small in number, they have almost no say in the international community and international public opinion. except for one or two reports when some western media occasionally "find their conscience", people basically cannot see their dissatisfaction in the news.
it is not just tinian island. in guam, an island that has long been "heavily" militarized by the us military, many locals are enduring the destruction of their homes by the us military and living in fear under the shadow of us military hegemony. in 2018, the new york times published a rare in-depth report on guam, telling how the local indigenous people of guam, who have almost no say, are working hard to protect their disappearing national identity, culture and homeland on guam, a land full of traces of us troops, and how they are desperately looking forward to - perhaps one day in the future - the land will be returned to them by the us military.
the title of this report is also shocking, called "those americans forgotten by americans" - due to the lack of discourse power, the "second-class citizens" of guam, whose political status is different from that of native americans, have long been "forgotten" in the american public opinion field. the new york times reporter who wrote this report also lamented that when the american public opinion was discussing the dark history of the united states's prosperity through colonization, places such as guam in the south pacific were also forgotten in these discussions.
moreover, the report also mentioned an ironic and helpless situation: because guam has been militarized for so many years, many of the local indigenous people are u.s. military personnel. the dual identities of indigenous people and u.s. military personnel also make them more cautious when expressing their dissatisfaction with the u.s. military.
therefore, facing the people living on tinian, guam, and other lands such as diego garcia that have become us military bases, gengzhi hopes that when the us military runs from the north american continent to these small islands across the ocean and turns the local people's land and homes into war machines and targets china, their experiences can attract more attention from international public opinion.
audit | lu changyin
editor | guo weitong
proofreading | zhou yang
