- A Chinese couple planned to create a mini-state on the Pacific island.
- The couple lobbied legislators to create a “Semi-Autonomous Region.”
- A zone like that would have increased international access.
According to US prosecutors, a Chinese couple planned to create a mini-state on the Pacific island of the Marshall Islands by buying MPs and other officials.
The couple lobbied legislators to create a “Semi-Autonomous Region” (SAR) on a far-off atoll.
A zone like that would have increased international access to the country in the Pacific, which the US ruled until 1979.
Despite requests from opposition parties, the Marshall Islands government has not yet responded to the claims completely.
However, according to US authorities, Gina Zhou and Cary Yan violated the island nation’s sovereignty.
According to US prosecutors, their activities resulted in the debate of pro-SAR laws in the Marshall Islands parliament in 2018 and 2020.
Authorities claim that a number of unnamed Marshall Island MPs approved the laws in exchange for bribes from US$7,000 to $22,000 (£6,100 to £19,000).
The two were taken into custody in Thailand in 2020, and this week they were returned to the US.
Yan and Zhou’s bribery, according to US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York, “blatantly flouted the sovereignty of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and its legislature.”
After being governed by the US for 40 years, the Marshall Islands, a group of islands between Hawaii and Australia, obtained their independence in 1979.
The two defendants, according to the prosecution, ran a New York-based NGO through which they communicated and made payments to Marshall Islands officials.
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