Seven Chinese citizens have been arrested on charges of illegally entering Guam at about the same time the U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted a key missile interception test using a new radar, according to the island’s Customs and Quarantine Agency has said.
The agency added that about four of the people arrested on Dec. 10-11 were found “in the vicinity of a military installation”. Guam has a lot of installations, including the Andersen Air Force Base, where the December 10 missile test was conducted.
The Institute for the Study of War had in a report on Friday, said;
“Conducting espionage against U.S. military facilities, especially those with missile launch capabilities, could provide the PRC with potentially valuable intelligence.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to react to this news but Guamanian authorities have said that all of the Chinese nationals arrived on the same boat from Saipan, and that an investigation is ongoing.
The United States has revealed plans to create an air and missile defense network at 16 sites around the island to discourage any missile attack on Guam by making it too complex and resource-intensive to carry out.
The plan’s objective is to integrate the most advanced U.S. missile defense systems and radars, and may cost as much as $10 billion over the next 10 years.
Since the December 10 test was successful, the Missile Defense Agency has said that up to two interception tests could be conducted each year.
