By Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday barred Palau Senate President Hokkons Baules and his family from entering the U.S., accusing him of corruption linked to China, as Washington pushes back on Beijing’s effort to boost its influence in the Pacific.
“Baules abused his public position by accepting bribes in exchange for providing advocacy and support for government, business, and criminal interests from China,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
“His actions constituted significant corruption and adversely affected U.S. interests in Palau,” Pigott said.
The department also designated Anderson Jibas, a former mayor from the Marshall Islands, who it said had been involved in “theft, misuse, and abuse of funds” from the U.S.-provided Bikini Resettlement Trust intended to address the legacy of U.S. nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and 1950s.
The designations will bar the two men and their immediate family members from entering the United States.
The embassies of Palau and the Marshall Islands in Washington did not respond immediately to Reuters’ requests for comment. Reuters could not reach Baules or Jibas for comment.
Palau and the Marshall Islands, two strategically positioned U.S.-allied Pacific Island nations, have in recent years become a focus in an intensifying geopolitical contest between Washington and Beijing.
Both countries receive economic support from the U.S. through their Compacts of Free Association and in return Washington is responsible for their defense while gaining exclusive military access to strategic swathes of the Pacific.
But China, keen to make inroads in the region, has been wooing the financially strapped Pacific economies with development and economic opportunities.
Baules, who pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking in 1989, has been one of the island’s most vociferous advocates for China. Under his leadership, the senate has passed resolutions criticizing U.S. military activity in Palau, while he has personally advocated for expanded ties with China.
Corporate records reviewed by Reuters show that his family operates a local business called Fuji Restaurant, which Palauan authorities have linked to Chinese criminal activity.
“Corruption is an open door to advance its (China’s) agenda, especially in countries that recognize Taiwan and have critical U.S. military bases,” said Cleo Paskal, an expert on the COFA states with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
Palau and the Marshall Islands are among the few remaining states that maintain official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the democratically governed island China claims as its territory.
In recent years, Palau officials have sought increased U.S. patrols of its waters after incursions by Chinese vessels into its exclusive economic zone. Palau also hosts American-controlled airstrips and the U.S. military is building advanced radar stations there. Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is home to a critical testing base for U.S. missile defenses.
(Reporting by Michael Martina, David Brunnstrom and Jasper Ward in Washington and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Nick Zieminski)
