This blog is about Hawaii's status as an independent country under prolonged illegal occupation by the United States, and the history, culture, law & politics of the islands.

By Scott Crawford, Hana, Maui

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China threatening to arm Hawaiian independence movement?

In the Free Beacon, a conservation online publication (which I don’t think is considered a very credible source of news, but still wanted to pass this along FYI), Bill Gertz reports:

HONOLULU—China has suggested arming Hawaii’s independence activists in retaliation for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and recently threatened to challenge American sovereignty by making legal claims to the Pacific islands as its territory.

Chinese threats to back several groups of Hawaiian independence activists who want to restore the islands’ constitutional monarchy, ousted in a U.S.-backed coup over a century ago, has raised concerns that military facilities on the strategic central Pacific archipelago are threatened at a time when the Obama administration is engaged in a major shift toward Asia as part of its military and diplomatic rebalance.

Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant and author of the recent book 100 Year Marathon, said Chinese military hawks, known as “ying pai,” told him they are ready to provide arms to Hawaiian independence activists in retaliation for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

“Beijing’s extraordinary sensitivity to American arms sales to Taiwan—even one bullet or a spare tire for a jeep—often provokes angry words,” said Pillsbury who has held talks with 35 Chinese generals in recent years.

“A favorite comparison the ying pai has made to me is ‘How would the Pentagon like it if we provide arms to our friends in Hawaiian independence movement?’” he said.

The article also mentions a previous incident from 2012:

Another indicator of Chinese interest in fomenting unrest in Hawaii surfaced in 2012, when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed Beijing had threatened to assert legal, territorial claims over Hawaii.

Clinton said U.S. ownership of Hawaii came up during talks with the Chinese after she pushed back against Beijing’s destabilizing territorial activities in the South China Sea.

“At one point in one of my long discussions about this, one of my Chinese interlocutors said, ‘Well, we could claim Hawaii,’” she said. “I said, ‘Well, go ahead, and we’ll go to arbitration and prove we own it. That’s what we want you to do.’”

As the article notes, the Hawaiian independence movement is non-violent. In my 20+ years in the movement, I have not met one person who advocated any kind of violence or armed resistance. This perspective goes all the way back to the actions of Queen Liliu‘okalani who in 1893 yielded her authority under protest to the U.S. invaders in order “to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life.”

So the idea of the Chinese arming independence activists is ridiculous on its face and completely unrealistic. I can’t imagine anyone in the movement accepting arms from China, both because it goes against the non-violent philosophy, and because it would be incredibly stupid and dangerous and counterproductive. This is simply Chinese propaganda and shouldn’t be taken seriously as something that has any chance of ever actually coming to pass.

But the larger point here is simply that there are certainly elements within the Chinese government who are quite aware of the history of the U.S. claim to sovereignty in Hawaii, and the movement to end the occupation.

I also found it interesting that then-Secretary Clinton responded to the 2012 Chinese threats of claiming Hawai‘i by saying “we’ll go to arbitration and prove we own it. That’s what we want you to do.”  Of course we know that the U.S. has never proved that we own Hawai‘i, and all evidence that I have seen supports the fact that we do not, and have never had a valid claim. And if it was truly arbitrated, that’s what would be proven by the facts of history and law.

Also, one correction. The article says, “Some U.S. archival material shows U.S. authorities acted on their own in the 1898 annexation, [Pillsbury] said, something Congress later investigated.” First off, he’s actually referring to the invasion of 1893. Of course it was Congress that passed the Newlands Resolution purporting to annex Hawai‘i, for military purposes in the Spanish-American War, after their failure to ratify the treaty of annexation due in large part to the Ku‘e Petition (which every Hawaiian today can find ancestors who signed). It was the invasion of 1893 which Congress later investigated and claimed was the result of the U.S. Minister acting without authority in conspiracy “with a small group of non-Hawaiian residents of the Kingdom of Hawaii.” But we now know, thanks to the research of Buzzy Agard, that the U.S. planned and executed the invasion and overthrow from the very top.

6 comments to China threatening to arm Hawaiian independence movement?

  • Here is what Dr. Williamson Chang, Senior Law Professor at the University of Hawaii reminded me to help me with research for a book I plan to write:

    “Can you tell me what legal event changed the status of the KIngdom of Hawaii from an independent and sovereign nation, equal to that of the United Sates, such that it is now part of the United States?

    . There has never been a treaty by which the Hawaiian government ceded sovereignty and its lands to the United States.

    .The claim that the United States makes that a Joint Resolution of Congress acquired Hawaii. is an impossibility sincea joint resolution is merely a law of the United States. If the laws of the United States could acquire a foreign nation, then the laws of Hawaii, could by the same reasoning acquire the United States. No state can acquire the other by its laws.

    . Hawaii was not conquered by the United States. The United States does not make that claim. In1893. the President of the United States, President Cleveland, even promised to restore the Queen to power. This is the very opposite of conquest.

    . In 1900 and1959, the sections of the Organic Act of1900 and the Act of Admission as a state in1959, that described the boundaries of both the Territory of Hawaii and the State of Hawaii both declare that the United States never acquired the Hawaiian Islands.

    . Thus, the United States cannot claim it acquired Hawaii by prescription, that is by means similar to adverse possession for the United States, by its own laws, even today, admits that the Hawaiian Islands are not part of the United States.”

    I write these points here to give concrete evidence that, the former U.S. Secretary of State not withstanding, Hawaii is still sovereign and independent.

  • I believe it is time to seek the assistance of others to help us get those greedy euro-americans off of our islands. And China is as good a prospect as any seeing as how they have already offered to help us in such an endeavor. It would be interesting to see what would happen if, say, Keanu Sai were to confer with a top China official on the prospect of developing a mutual defense treaty between China and Hawaii seeing as how Hawaii is an independent nation and may need the help of other countries to defend ourselves against intruders or invaders.

  • anthony locklear

    I am a native amerivcan, and have never been to Hawaii. But I know of this problem to well. I ask that The kingdom of Hawaii start asking to internation acceptence from russian, and the backing of military leaders in the middle east. IF they want help they’ll need to fight for it. As a native american we don’t want to be part of american no more then they do and have tried, I am glad to hear that they are fighting for what is right.

  • Kala

    The reason Hawaiians aren’t armed is because the Hawaiian people, a tiny endangered race amongst the worlds more rare and endangered races, would face the full might and wrath of the United States, one of the most powerful nations on the planet, and it’s military, one of the world’s strongest militaries.

    Hawaiians have a reputation for an almost superstitious passive acceptance, as if resigned to their fate by the gods.

    But it wasn’t always so.

    Hawaiians were the fiercest and most fearless warriors Captain Cook and his men ever met. They were not scared of the musket and cannonball, which they had never seen before, and killed Cook and many of his men, driving them back to their ships, with their primitive weapons, and raw fearless power.

    Hawaiians, however, are all, almost without exception, extremely spiritual people, close to their gods, and fearful only of the gods.

    Anglo-Christian Missionaries of European religions have always had the most success in Polynesia, and Hawaii was no exception. Today, even, the overwhelming majority of Polynesians are Christian or even Mormon. But unlike those who converted them, Hawaiians fear deity, and would thus cease to bring war, and try their best to obey, meanwhile the Christian nations who brought their religious mayhem to the “Pagan” and “Heathen” cultures of the world gladly killed, stole, cheated, lied, raped, kidnapped, trafficked slaves, and murdered freely with their god’s blessing, and in his name even.

    Hawaiians, like many native indigenous peoples of the world, were and are naive and pure of heart and intention, unlike the twisted hearts and minds of those who brought their religions and diseases to our peoples.

    Hawaiians are friendly people who lived Alo Ha, a concept incomprehensible to the Anglo-Americans who betrayed and continue to betray our people.

    Hawaiians have been utterly decimated, their culture, their language, their ways, their beliefs, their hopes, their dreams, their futures, their families, and their very lives. Yet you find it “laughable” that they lack the heart, desire, or will to fight against the totalitarian oppression wrought over them by the sheer Despotism of the ignorant and hateful racist American bigot, liar, and thief.

    It’s the same reason native Americans don’t fight to take back their land.. I’m glad you find it “hilarious” that a people are so hopeless, destitute, utterly oppressed and destroyed by the despotism of an absolute power that they have absolutely no hope of ever gaining any sort of justice, apart for the equally hilarious lots of crap land they are given to live on.

    Do you also find it Hilarious that Hawaiians are perhaps the only Native Indigenous people on the planet to not have so much as a foothold of their own land, hilarious guy?

    Alas, Hawaiians do need help, not in the form of weapons shipped to them, but in the form of standing Armies backed by the world’s most powerful nations, such as China & Russia. Hawaiians need, neigh, deserve to have someone fighting for them against their totalitarian oppressors, liars, and thieves. America needs to be Annexed by one or more Superpowers

    Bring the Russians, and the Chinese, and the Iranians and anyone else wishing to take the moral High ground to right a terrible injustice being perpetrated by the a country forcefully and perpetually exercising the world’s most ruthless and racist despotism, and then arm the Hawaiians, and be prepared to have the smirk wiped off of your face.

  • Karl Johnson

    You cant even begin to imagine the ruin you will put these islands in. This place will be 3rd world in no time flat. You need money to run a government. Where you going to get it.

  • Kala

    Well Karl, by “ruin” do you mean Hawaiians won’t be able to afford fancy things?

    Or do you mean for the haole?

    What it will do, immediately, is give Hawaiians a home, and all the Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii because they can’t afford to live in Hawaii can all finally come home.

    All Hawaiians need is the land, the aloha, the ocean, the spirits, the Gods, and Hawaiians.

    FYI, China can give the money. Unlike America who gives money and lwnd to everyobe but Hawaiians whilst being in 40 trillion dollars in debt, China actually has money.

    And really, the US payments for Pearl Harbor, and all military installations and the new leases for land by all Haole houses and Hotels etc will be more than enough for a Hawaiian government to get the funds needed to start tearing down all the things the ilo built.

    And/or Russia and China can lease the land if America is unwilling to pay the required annual Rent for the most strategic place on the planet and the most beautiful perfect place on the planet as well which America just stole and uses for free.

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