The US government’s swift recovery of Tinian North Field, a deserted original World War II B-29 base, signals a major change in its Pacific protection strategy in relation to China.
The War Zone reported that current satellite pictures confirms the broad restoration of North Field on Tinian Island, which is located 193 km north of Guam. Between December 2023 and January 2025, the statement stated that more than 20 million square feet of tarmac and equipment at the airport have been rehabilitated.  ,
The US Air Force and Navy have spearheaded the project, integrating the site into the US Agile Combat Employment (ACE ) strategy emphasizing dispersed, flexible basing to counter China’s missile threats. Tinian North Field’s grid-like style affects army targeting, requiring substantial resources to destroy.
To increase administrative capabilities, Tinian International Airport is currently working on a sizable new aprons and energy storage facilities. The reform complements Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and another Pacific airports in America’s wider Indo-Pacific plan.
While US officials give effective air defenses preceding hardening facilities, China’s growing missile threat highlights the need for flexible basing. The recovery also accommodates short-take-off plane like the F-35B, reinforcing US energy forecast in the region.
The US has undertaken related repair work at Peleliu, an area of Palau, and strategies to do the same for Yap, an area of Micronesia. The military equipment on Peleliu and Yap may be upgraded to those on Tinian and Guam to raise survivorship against a Chinese invasion and strengthen America’s place in the Second Island Chain once it is finished.
Why, 80 years after World War II, is the US bolstering its appearance in the Pacific’s Second Island Chain? Grant Georgulis argues in a 2022 content for the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs that the First Island Chain, spanning Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, is never a survivable nor safe place for businesses because it is within reach of China’s long-range aircraft, cruise missiles and nuclear weapons.
Georgulis suggests that the US rely on the Second Island Chain, including Midway, the Marianas, Palau and the Marshall Islands, to strengthen Guam’s threats.
Nevertheless, China has its own island-hopping approach in the Pacific. Andrew Weaver mentions that China has been using coercive economic policies and elite capture to coerce island nations to support its Pacific defense plans, which aim to remove the US from its maritime periphery, in an August 2023 article for the Foreign Policy Research Institute ( FPRI ).
For example, Grant Newsham mentions that a game affiliated with China obtained permission to operate in Tinian Harbor, where US military equipment and supplies are transported. According to Newsham, the casino offers an excellent view of its coastal method, making it a top choice for Chinese intelligence service to operate there.
Additionally, Newsham points out that US efforts to establish a coaching center on Saipan a decade ago were thwarted by a now-defunct Chinese game, with money being richly spent in “environmental organizations” and in government loops.
He also mentions that China is investing in strategically located territory at Angaur in Palau where the US intends to install an over-the-horizon weapon defence radar and that it is building an airport there for” tourism” purposes. China is reportedly considering building a new US airport in Kanton, Kiribati, for” tourism” purposes, according to Newsham.
Additionally, Newsham mentions that East Timor has the potential to “gift” China an empty US 10, 000-foot airport in trade for financial help, and that strategies are being developed for China to build Henderson Field in the Solomon Islands. The US and its Pacific colleagues might have to halt their involvement in the Third Island Chain if China were to gain a significant foothold there.
Frederick Cichon asserts in a December 2024 Trials content that the US position in the Pacific is comparable to what it was in 1941. According to Chancon, the US’s defeat in the Philippines forced it to work as far ahead as Hawaii, thereby allowing Japan to create island foundations throughout the Southwest and the South Pacific.
He points out that the US was forced to engage in unforeseen combat in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, with just Midway and Coral Sea wars preventing Japan.
He argues that outposts in the Third Island Chain, such as those in Hawaii, American Samoa, and New Zealand, provided essential support and were less susceptible than US bases in the First and Second Island Chains.
Cichon warns that China’s weapons could seriously harm US troops in Japan and Guam in a contemporary war over Taiwan, undermining the need for the US to improve its surroundings and missile threats in the First and Second Island Chains and demonstrate advanced foundations in the Third Island Chain.
Yet the Third Island Chain does no longer be the US’s preferred defensive tactic. China recently conducted live-fire activities in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, hastily broadcasting a reminder to commercial airplanes flying over the place.
Anne-Marie Brady claims that China’s unannounced live-fire exercise was intended to show New Zealand, Australia, and other Pacific nations that it wants to establish a permanent regional presence in a Radio New Zealand ( RNZ ) report this month.
Brady also points out that New Zealand must listen to China’s challenge in live-fire exercises, but that she claims the defence budget has been cut so far that it is unable to do so.
New Zealand is also concerned about a recently established, complete partnership between China and the Cook Islands, which is located halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand.
The Cook Islands have been able to provide people with New Zealand documents since 1965 by maintaining a free connection with the country. The Cook Islands can undertake an independent foreign policy, but it must discuss with New Zealand regarding issues involving foreign plan, defense, and protection.
In an essay for The New Zealand Herald, Anna Powles points out that China’s “blue economy” cooperation on tourism and ground mining could include important infrastructure, such as the construction of ports that can house the hundreds of Taiwanese coast guard ships registered in the Pacific, and that it would also lead to a stronger Foreign presence in the area.