China tensions rising as US revives WWII-era Pacific airfield

Washington (AFP) - In the middle of the Pacific ocean, an abandoned US airfield once key to dropping the nuclear bomb on Japan -- and nearly lost to history amid encroaching forest -- is being revived. But as the Americans hack away at the jungle overgrowth at Tinian island airfield and other old, World War II-era bases across the region, it won't be with Japan on their mind. Rather, it's Beijing's growing influence in the Pacific that is spurring the recovery of a slew of abandoned runways on the 40 square-mile (100 square-kilometer) speck of land that makes up Tinian, part of the US territor...