Micronesia in the news, or How useful it is to be useless!

[randy_byers]

So Palau (widely called Belau in Micronesia) has agreed to take the 17 Uighurs from Gitmo in exchange for $200 million. The part of the story that is striking to me is that apparently nobody else has been willing to take the Uighurs, because the PRC wants them back and has been pressuring other countries not to take them. Why was Palau willing to buck the PRC? Because they don't recognize the PRC. Palau recognizes Taiwan instead. Why? Because Taiwan has invested money in Palau (and elsewhere in Micronesia, including Yap to some extent).

This is like the other shoe dropping to me, because my brother and I have often wondered why Taiwan paid so much attention (and so much money) to Micronesia. The answer would seem to be because Taiwan needs allies wherever it can find them, and the Micronesian nations are unimportant enough that the PRC has ignored them up till now. And so Palau is able to solve one of Obama's big Gitmo headaches. Never saw that coming!

Just as a side note, Japan invests in Micronesia too, but they have a historical colonial relationship with the islands that seems to account for it. Well, that and it's a source of high-grade tuna.

Comments

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

Are there any other Uighurs in Palau? I think it's wrong not to bring them to the US, since there are others here. Is Palau just going to be a larger prison for them?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I really doubt that Palau has any other Uighurs. One of the places we tried to send them apparently was Australia, which does have a Uighur population, but Australia wouldn't take them. (The PRC is one of Australia's main trade partners.)

I have no idea what Palau will do with them.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what Palau will do with them.

And now, the answer to that question. Or, rather, the stark absence of an answer.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Makes me wonder how the FSM's and Yap's laws compare to Palau's. Makes me think of Dave -- the diver I knew on Yap whose death I recently wrote about. He had his own diveshop, Beyond the Reef, but he was married to a Yapese woman and would only hire Yapese to work for him. (My nephew asked if he could work for him one summer and was told no.) He often said that he kept his mouth shut about things that could potentially affect his business (like dredging on the reef that muddied the water in prime dive areas), because the Yapese didn't want to hear his opinion. Still, he loved it out there. Then again he chose to be there, unlike the Uighurs.

Like Doug said, it would undoubtedly have been better to settle them somewhere like the US that had a community of Uighurs.

"China Protests Moving of Detainees"

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

An article in the New York Times today has more information about the legal wrangling that has led to this solution. It also talks about four Uighurs who have been resettled in Bermuda. Of note, considering your question, is the following: 'The detainees “will have the opportunity to become naturalized citizens,” [Bermuda's president] said, “and thereafter afforded the right to travel and leave Bermuda, potentially settling elsewhere.' However, it's more complicated than that, and you'd have to read the whole story to see why and how.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Switching diplomatic allegiance between Taiwan and China can be terribly embarrassing for a small country.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Wow, fascinating little story, particularly the details about the "dollar diplomacy" battle between Beijing and Taipei in the Caribbean.

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

Countries such as Taiwan, China, and Japan obviously distribute air for a variety of reasons. One of these is good old fashioned vote buying. There are a variety of international organisations these days where how the member nations vote affects various aspects of international cooperation. So giving aid to the poorer members of such organisations can help richer nations get their way. In theory at least, not everybody stays bribed, especially if somebody else offers an even bigger inducement to vote another way.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll be curious to follow this story in the future to see whether the PRC turns its sights on Palau now. Although the $200 million that Palau is allegedly getting for this deal is not chump change for a nation of 20,000 people.

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

My money would actually be on China attempting to score points off Palau through any client states it has in the region (assuming it does). I think it's unlikely that Palau would risk upsetting the USA and Japan by taking a Chinese bride at this point. (While it's true that Japan isn't in any way involved in this matter of Uighurs it's also true that Japan and China are by no means the best of buddies so the Japanese would almost certainly consider any attempt by China to bribe Palau as trespassing. As a further aside it's worth noting that Japanese largess is probably not so much about historical ties or tuna but Japan wanting Palau's vote when it comes to whaling. Given what an emotive issue this is amongst some Japanese this is likely to make them even more sensitive about perceived trespassing.)