China Is Threatening Relative Peace in Pacific: Ret. Captain

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Joining us for insight this Memorial Day is [music] Captain James Fenel, a retired US Navy intelligence officer and former director of intelligence with the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. He's also the co-author of Embracing Communist China, America's greatest strategic failure.

[00:00:19]Captain, happy Memorial Day. Memorial Day is of course about sacrifice.

[00:00:25]To begin with, how should Americans think about the service members who gave their lives in the Western Pacific during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam?

[00:00:36]>> Well, thanks for having me on. It's a very important day and a very sacred day uh for all Americans, not just those who served in uniform. Every American that enjoys liberty and freedom uh today has over a million Americans who died in combat around all of our wars in the last 250 years. Uh their eternal thanks that they gave as President Lincoln said the last full measure of their their lives uh to uh promote uh the values that America stands for which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[00:01:11]And uh so this day is a special day. The president goes with the vice president and the other leaders of our government to honor uh those dead and to never forget uh the lives that were given so that people could live in the freedom that they have today and have the advantages of uh enjoying the first amendment to speak out and say whatever they'd like or to associate with whoever they'd like or or the second amendment to the right to defend themselves or all the other uh rights that are enshrined in our bill of rights, those in inalienable rights that we get from a higher creator. And so this day is a day Go ahead.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah, I appreciate these these remarks and of course that the sacrifice you speak of really knows no limits and no bounds, but keeping our eyes right on the Western Pacific, what does the history of those conflicts tell us about the cost of keeping that region free from domination?

[00:02:14]Right. And so in the Pacific we have paid a high high price. Uh in World War II we have battles uh like Tarowa, Pelu, Guad Canal, um Ewuima. Um these were, you know, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives over those battles to uh keep the Pacific free and open and establish this last 80 years of essentially uh freedom of navigation, free access to markets, and the ability for all nations to uh to rise up. So this sacrifice didn't just help Americans, it helped the rest of the Western Pacific and all those nations that were devastated in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

[00:02:57]Americans gave their lives so that people in that region uh could live freely. And so I think uh we're facing again another challenge from the People's Republic of China. And hopefully we will not have to sacrifice American lives. Uh but we need to be prepared for that uh that contingency given what the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to do. And so a lot of people died. There's a lot of sacred ground across the central and western Pacific in those island chains and and places where Americans died uh so that people could be free. And they do they died in really horrible conditions, hot, humid, uh desolate plate in terms of the conditions. The fighting was horrific in some places like at Pelu, like at Tarowa uh just to the the Japanese fought to the death. uh and it was a it was a titanic struggle and we had the similar experiences in Korea and Vietnam and uh we don't want to have to do that again but Americans need to understand that Americans before them uh went there went away from their homes uh to fight for freedom and liberty and in the Pacific uh it could be called upon again to do that. Uh we never should forget that.

[00:04:17][clears throat] And I know you've written extensively about China's rise and and speaking of it now today. How do you connect today's strategic challenges in the Pacific with um and honoring the fallen today with the way that we should think about peace and deterrence now?

[00:04:37]Well, I'm very concerned about some of these grave sites like in in uh the Solomon Islands at Guad Canal or or like in Kiraabas at Tarowa and these other places where the Chinese Communist Party has made inroads with the governments.

[00:04:52]They've switched their recognition from uh Taiwan to the PRC, the Solomons and Kiraabos did in 2019. And soon as the Chinese get their influence there, they start blocking off access to American grave sites. Uh this is a desecration of America's uh Americans sacrifice in their memory and it's an indicator of how the Chinese Communist Party is working to slowly push their goal is to push the United States out of the region out of the Western Pacific out of the central Pacific out of the South Pacific and institute their form of government.

[00:05:27]And their form of government is a collectivist uh idea. It's an antithesis of the American system which is individual liberty, individual freedom, individual responsibility. Uh that has shaped this uh region for the last 80 years and helped literally millions and millions of people uh have nicer lives than they would have had under occupation whether it was from the Japanese or communist uh China or com or the Soviet Union. So we have a lot to uh remember.

[00:06:00]>> Yeah. that communist regime really enforcing collectivism through control.

[00:06:07]Now, as Americans mark Memorial Day, what should the next generation understand about the why of the why the Pacific matters?

[00:06:17]>> Yeah, the Pacific matters to America because a lot of our uh you know uh economic security and military security is wrapped up in this region. The reason that we have the relative peace of the Pacific compared to the Middle East over the last, you know, four or five decades is because we were allowed to establish relations and have alliance structures with Japan, with South Korea, with Australia, with the Philippines, with Thailand, and a close relationship with Taiwan. And these alliance structures pro provided a a kind of a a stability in that region. And when any other nation that doesn't buy into that u concept threatens the region like China is doing right now, we we should be a alerted to that and worried about that.

[00:07:11]And this new upcoming generation needs to understand the price that could come for not uh being prepared and not standing ready and having a little bit of patriotism about America. Doesn't mean we want war. We absolutely do not want war. This day reminds us that we don't want war. But that price of not having more comes for people standing up and saying, "I will serve and I will represent America and I will be a deterrent to any aggressor and a deterrent to the Chinese Communist Party." The Chinese Communist Party needs to understand that Americans, whether they're my age, an old man, or young people that are coming up, understand the sacrifices that are necessary to ensure that the Chinese Communist Party cannot spread their ideology across that region and into America and change everybody's lives for the worse.

[00:08:03]>> An important discussion. Thank you so much for your time today and thank you for your service.