Compass Points - Tentacle Chop
How Marines can disrupt global threats
Compass Points - Tentacle Chop
How Marines can disrupt global threats
August 5, 2026
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For decades China has wormed its tentacles around the globe in preparation for war. US Marines can help deter China by being clear that if war comes, Marines will chop off those tentacles.
China is the major global threat to the US. Seven years ago, US Marine Corps leaders rashly decided the best way Marines could help oppose China was to place a few small sensor and missile units directly off China’s coast. In seven years, the Marine Corps has been unable to field a single operational sensor and missile unit off China’s coast. Worse, even if the units were in place, the small units would do little to deter China. There is a much more powerful way, however, for the Marine Corps to help deter China around the globe.
On what region of the globe should the US military focus?
Smart minds inside the Pentagon and around the US defense establishment are debating three options.
— The Western Pacific
— The Western Hemisphere
— The Middle East, Europe, & Africa.
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The better question is what are the major threats to the US and US global interests?
1. China
2. Russia
3. Iran
4. North Korea
5. Other state and non-state actors
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If China is going to be the number one threat to the US now and in the future then it is China that US must prepare to confront around the world.
— China in Western Pacific
— China in Western Hemisphere.
— China in Middle East, Europe, & Africa.
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China is a not confined to Asia. It has been expanding its dual use infrastructure around the globe for decades. China’s global sites are extremely vulnerable.
For example, the US House of Representatives committee has uncovered nearly a dozen Chinese space facilities actively operating in the Western Hemisphere. The official press release explains.
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Today, the Select Committee on China released a new investigation uncovering how China is using infrastructure in Latin America to advance its space capabilities and intelligence collection. The investigation, Pulling Latin America into China’s Orbit, comes as the second installment of the Select Committee’s investigations into China’s activity in the Western Hemisphere.
“So much of daily American life depends on satellites in the skies above us, and that’s why China’s space operations are of serious concern. China is only investing in space operations in Latin American to advance its agenda and undermine America in space,” said Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar. “President Trump has acted decisively on confronting China’s malign influence in the Western Hemisphere, and our allies should act promptly on the recommendations in this report and stop the expansion of China’s space infrastructure.”
The Select Committee’s investigation uncovered that China has developed an extensive network of dual-use space ground stations and telescopes across Latin America and uses this network to collect intelligence and boost the PLA’s warfighting capacity. The investigation found at least eleven China-linked space facilities established across Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil.
-- House Select Committee on China
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Another report details how China continues to build dual use sites around the globe that give China global reach.
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A key element facilitating this expansion is China’s adept use of strategic ambiguity. Official discourse frequently employs euphemisms, labeling facilities with clear military potential as “support facilities” or “logistics hubs”. This approach, sometimes described by scholars using the phrase “first civilian, then military” (先民后军), involves initially emphasizing commercial purposes for infrastructure projects, particularly ports developed under the BRI umbrella, only to later leverage them for military support. This pattern is observable not only in Djibouti but also in potential access arrangements being developed or sought in locations like Gwadar, Pakistan, Ream, Cambodia, Khalifa Port in the UAE, and potentially Bata in Equatorial Guinea. Such ambiguity allows Beijing to gradually expand its military reach while attempting to minimize immediate geopolitical friction and providing less clear targets for countermeasures by competitors like the United States.
-- Global Wordscope, “China’s Overseas Military Footprint: Strategic Bases and Global Reach”
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The Council on Foreign Relations is currently tracking 145 port facilities owned or controlled by China.
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The China Overseas Ports interactive visualizes degrees of China’s overseas port ownership by types of investment across regions and time. It also evaluates the dual-use (commercial and military) potential of ports owned, constructed, or operated by Chinese entities. The database supporting this interactive includes 145 port projects of which Chinese entities have acquired varied equity ownership or operational stakes.
China operates or has ownership in at least one port in every continent except Antarctica. Of the 145 projects, 132 are active, whereas the remaining thirteen port projects have become inactive due to cancellation or suspension by the end of July 2026. Reasons for cancellation or suspension include environmental concerns, souring of political relations, financial problems, and security issues raised domestically and internationally. Suspended projects, such as China’s construction of the Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates, could resume construction.
-- Council on Foreign Relations, “Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports”
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Instead of confining small units of sensor and missile Marines off the coast of China, the US Marines should build up and enhance Marine forward deployed, combined arms, tasks forces on amphibious ships around the globe. As one Compass points reader has written, “The key to effective use of the Corps in a conflict with the PLA/PLAN is using our medium weight combined arms MAGTFs in attacking the PRC’s “Belt and Road” installations worldwide. We need to be thinking maneuver warfare globally!” -- Greg Falzetta.
Global US Marines can take over or destroy China’s space and communication facilities around the globe. Global US Marines can take over or destroy China’s port facilities around the globe.
Global Marines can be a powerful tool for the US. But Marines confined on islands?Not so much. If US Marines ever placed sensor and missile units off China’s coast, China would not be concerned because they could destroy them easily. But what could China do to defend its global infrastructure against US Marines? Very little.
For decades China has wormed its tentacles around the globe in preparation for war. US Marines can help deter China by being clear that if war comes, or even before war comes, Marines have the ability to chop off those tentacles.
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Global Wordscope - 04/26/2025
China’s Overseas Military Footprint: Strategic Bases and Global Reach
https://global-worldscope.blogspot.com/2025/04/chinas-overseas-military-footprint.html
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US House of Representatives - Select Committee on China
Pulling Latin America into China’s Orbit
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East Asia Relations - 06/25/2026
China’s Expanding Footprint in the Middle East and Europe
How infrastructure, digital systems, and dual‑use logistics are reshaping China’s strategic leverage between the Middle East and Europe
By Cudi Zerey
https://europeanrelations.com/chinas-expanding-footprint-in-the-middle-east-and-europe/
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Africa Center for Strategic Studies - 06/10/2026
Beyond Ports: China Embeds Itself in Africa’s Maritime Networks
By Paul Nantulya
https://africacenter.org/spotlight/china-africa-maritime-networks/
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Council on Foreign Relations
Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports
https://www.cfr.org/articles/china-overseas-ports
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The Corps must remain a globally deployable, conventional combat force that is focused on the world’s maritime choke points. It could be via Amphibious assault, administrative off load working with allies or by other means such as a mix of amphibious, fly in etc. If the Corps can do this the myriad of other missions are executable. Master the tough stuff first. The rest are secondary missions.
How this escaped the leadership of the last seven years is a puzzle that reveals unexplainable shortfalls in education, history, budgeting and influence.
As the Official Spokesman for FD(2030) and GCE 2040...I'll remind CP that FD and GCE 2040 concepts are "threat informed" which means they are precisely what is needed to target the threat(s), regardless of execution or lack thereof. Moreso, these are data driven concepts, which means that they cannot be wrong or err in anyway. Thank you for your attention to this matter.