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yesterday

China Begins Reconstruction of WWII Airfield on Micronesia’s Woleai Atoll

The project highlights Beijing’s push for dual-use Pacific infrastructure

The World War II-era airfield on Woleai is undergoing reconstruction.
Satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on January 26, 2025, shows Micronesia's Woleai atoll and its disused airfield in the northeast.

Overview

  • On May 26, Shandong Hengyue Municipal Engineering and Micronesia’s Department of Transportation held a groundbreaking ceremony to restore the disused Woleai runway built by Imperial Japan.
  • The renovation aims to strengthen local transport links and support healthcare, business and education across the remote atoll.
  • Woleai’s location roughly 400 miles south of Guam places it within the strategic Second Island Chain that the U.S. relies on to project power.
  • The U.S. military is simultaneously reclaiming another WWII-era airfield on Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands to counterbalance China’s regional advances.
  • Analysts warn that Beijing’s military-civil fusion policy could enable the People’s Liberation Army to use the revived airstrip for strategic operations.