The unresolved questions after a reformist governor’s sudden death.

In Brief

The Bureau’s Sam Cooper in conversation with Indo-Pacific researcher Cleo Paskal and former U.S. official/China analyst Chris Meyer.

China is running a mixed influence operation in Micronesia to weaken the U.S. position in the Pacific without open conflict. The geography of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Compact of Free Association states represent a critical logistical corridor linking Hawaii to the first island chain near Asia — the main staging areas and supply hubs in any potential conflict over Taiwan. Paskal and Meyer examine Beijing’s campaign to build lasting access and influence in a region Washington has too often treated as secondary or peripheral.

After taking office in 2023, Arnold Palacios — Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) — urged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate alleged public corruption in the territory, focusing on the handling and possible misuse of roughly $1.6 billion in pandemic-era federal funds, as well as financial actions by the previous administration. Three months later Palacios collapsed in his office, was evacuated to Guam, and died that night at age 69. Official accounts cite a medical incident; unresolved questions about the circumstances and response persist among some local observers.

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