China is angling to take over a U.S. airbase in the Azores.
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On
June 27, a plane carrying Wen Jiabao made a “technical” stop on the
island of Terceira, in the Azores. Following an official greeting by
Alamo Meneses, the regional secretary of environment of the sea, the
Chinese premier spent four hours touring the remote Portuguese outpost
in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wen’s Terceira walkabout, which followed a four-nation visit to South
America, largely escaped notice at the time, but alarm bells should
have immediately gone off in Washington and in European capitals. For
one thing, Wen’s last official stop on the trip was Santiago, the
capital of Chile. Flights from Chile to China normally cross the
Pacific, not the Atlantic, so there was no reason for his plane to be
near the Azores. Moreover, those who visit the Azores generally favor
other islands in the out-of-the-way chain.