Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced new legislation on Thursday to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) growing influence in the Pacific with a permanent U.S. special envoy to the region’s leading policy forum.
The bill (pdf), known as the “U.S. and Pacific Islands Forum Partnership Act,” proposes to establish a permanent special envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), a group of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and some 18 Pacific Island nations in total.
Kennedy’s office noted that Beijing sees the group of Pacific Island countries as strategically important to its ambitions to dominate the region, given the communist regime already has a special envoy to the PIF. In February, the CCP appointed Qian Bo, China’s ambassador to Fiji since 2018, as its special envoy….