Grant Newsham on the 3 November Northern Mariana Islands election and China's role
Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine Corps officer and former diplomat, has published a column in Asia Times on the elections in the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands form a Commonwealth, that is, a US territory in the western Pacific whose inhabitants hold American citizenship. On 3 November some 50,000 residents will elect a governor, an attorney general and a delegate to the US Congress. The islands lie four hours' flight from Taiwan, at the centre of the so-called Second Island Chain. American strategists give this name to the line of archipelagos from Japan to the Philippines that is meant to contain the Chinese fleet's access to the Pacific. The US Army is currently restoring Second World War airfields on the island of Tinian.
Newsham asserts that for years China has been building up its influence on the islands through investment, chiefly through the Imperial Pacific International casino on Saipan. According to him, the casino's owners struck advantageous land deals with the family of Governor Ralph Torres, and the temporary casino in a shopping centre passed through itself around 2 billion dollars a month. In 2019 the FBI carried out searches at the casino and at Torres's office. The author also writes that under Torres the authorities failed to account for more than a billion dollars in federal Covid aid.
The next governor, Arnold Palacios, attempted to carry out a full investigation and to reduce dependence on China. In 2025 the FBI closed the case against Torres, and a few months later Palacios died suddenly. An assistant attorney general then granted Torres immunity from prosecution, and this official was later given the post of legal counsel to the islands' Senate.
Ralph Torres is now standing for governor again, while his brother is seeking the office of attorney general. Newsham believes that voters will be choosing between candidates who think of the islands' interests and candidates who think of their own interests and those of Beijing.
