Can the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands survive without tourism from China? That's the concern from some officials amid growing tensions in the region. KUAM News sat down with the NMI's delegate, who shared the new congress' perspective. 

The NMI's main tourism markets are China, Korea, and Japan. China holds 41% of that.  Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the Commonwealth Ports Authority chair, said, "So the discussion that I have been having with the Department of Defense is, 'hey, if you do not want China to come to the CNMI then we need to work together because this is not a U.S. problem, this is not a CNMI problem, this is a regional problem.'"

The CPA's suggestion is to look to allies like Australia and New Zealand for much-needed tourists. That testimony during a Senate hearing on inter island travel highlighting the geopolitical pressure on the island's economy amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China.

Delegate Gregorio Sablan said, "I have lost sleep over this and it is something that keeps me up. But I do not think we are going to have war...in my lifetime, not intentionally, not by purpose, unless there is an accident. Far too many accidents can happen in this now crowded East China and South china Sea."

Some Republicans in Congress calling China's presence in the Marianas a "national security concern."  Sablan sharing that when he introduced a bill proposing CNMI-only permanent status to 1,600 long-term foreign workers in the Commonwealth, one lawmaker asked to exclude those who are from China. 

"I am not...going to ever legislate where everyone except people whose ethnicity is this or that, no," Sablan stated strongly. "I am never going to do that. Then he said,'National security.' Well, there are some bad apples who float to Guam. They get caught. But there are some who did not get caught. Who are probably out there. And that is a concern. That is a valid concern."

KUAM asked the delegate how national concerns can be balanced with local economic needs. 

"That is a local decision," he responded. "That is a China decision. I have no decision in that. That is a China decision."