Seven Chinese nationals were arrested for illegally entering Guam when the US Missile Defense Agency was conducting a missile-interception test using a new radar system.
Guam’s Customs and Quarantine Agency said that at least four of the people arrested between 10 and 11 December were arrested in close proximity to a military installation.
All of the Chinese nationals arrived on the same boat from Saipan.
An investigation is ongoing.
“Conducting espionage against U.S. military facilities, especially those with missile launch capabilities, could provide the PRC with potentially valuable intelligence,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a report on Friday.
The missile test was conducted at Andersen Air Force Base.
The US is planning to create a defense network at 16 sites around the island to deter attacks on the island by making them too complex and costly to undertake.
The network will include advanced missile defense systems and radar, and is estimated to cost around $10 billion over the next decade.
In recent months there has been growing alarm about repeated attempts by foreign nationals to gain entry to secure military installations in the US. Two Jordanian men were detained for attempting to ram their way into a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, in what may have been a “dry run” for a terrorist attack.
Vehicles have attempted to breach gates at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story, in Virginia, Naval Base San Diego and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California. The attempted breach at the Air Ground Combat Center involved a Chinese national.
In June a Chinese national, Shi Fengyun, was charged with using a drone to photograph Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Newport, Virginia, which is used to build nuclear submarines and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers.