China increasing influence in Tonga

I was reading some foreign news sources, yes again. I came across this story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23469223

It got me to thinking. The popular image of Communists which is almost certainly more propaganda than truth, is that they show up bearing weapons and demanding surrender. Yet China is showing up bearing gifts. Perhaps not all that well considered, some buildings are ill conceived for the tropical climate, and the roads lack proper drainage for the environment. But they are roads, and buildings, in a nation that has little of either.

So how long before Tongan loyalty starts to shift from the United States and our allies? New Zealand has already pulled out of the inter-island flight business complaining they can't compete with a subsidized airline with one plane. So the one plane is all there is, which would seem like an opportunity. Imagine if we could provide a plane, worth a few million, to Tonga, and how much our image would increase. A Cessna would carry eight passengers or so, and cargo. Probably less than a million dollars, and we would cement a friendship for several years easily.

I was thinking about this because I love History. I am also ashamed that we turned our backs on helping the Philippine's after the Second World War. The people of the Philippine Islands stayed loyal to us, and got next to nothing to help reconstruct after two major battles, one to be taken by the Japanese, and one to be freed from the Japanese. We spent hundreds of millions to rebuild and upgrade the infrastructure of Japan, and utterly ignored our friends, not just in the Philippine Islands, but all over the Pacific. We totally displaced the Bikini Atoll people so we could test the largest Hydrogen bomb we could, and in the process irradiate the sailors who were witnesses to see what happened with Radiation exposure long term.

We have not always been a good neighbor, nor a good friend. I think we can be better. I wish we were a better friend. Imagine that we took the cost of one F-22 or one F-35 and spent that on our friends around the world. It would certainly do more good than the few bombs that would be dropped by the hyper expensive fighters.

China is making inroads to nations we care little about. Good for the people in those nations, someone is paying attention. But how long before Tonga starts to feel sympathetic towards China? How long before the Tongan representative at the UN is speaking out against the United States when we raise one of our weekly coplaints about China hacking/stealing intellectual property/theft of our designs and we lose the vote by an even larger margin.

My point is this, I think we are isolating ourselves into a corner, one we would be well advised to avoid if possible. One we should do everything possible to avoid. But we won't because bombs and planes and helicopters are sexy, and Terminator style drones to keep the war going is really sexy. A small one engine plane for a island nation is too much to even consider. Millions for defense, and not one cent for tribute.