For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart US ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the US military.
However, that loyalty is being tested amid a dispute with Washington over the terms of its “Compact of Free Association” agreement, which expires soon. The US is refusing to engage the Marshallese on claims for environmental and health damage caused by dozens of nuclear tests it carried out in the 1940s and 1950s, including a huge thermonuclear blast on Bikini Atoll.
The dispute has some US lawmakers worried that China