US Lags Behind China in Push for Sway in Pacific, Envoy Says

  • US and China in ‘strategic competition’ in Pacific Islands
  • US plans to spend more than $6 billion to help island nations
Joseph Yun

Photographer: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

A Biden administration envoy to the Pacific Islands acknowledges that the US has some catching up to do with China after years of neglecting the historically pro-American region.

“Let’s face it — it is strategic competition between China and us,” Joseph Yun told the Hudson Institute on Friday. “We’re playing a little bit of catchup, but we need to accelerate our catchup.”