China's military expansion around the Pacific is going great – on the east side, at least, not the west.

Illegal alien-exporting El Salvador has decided to give China its very own port, one that U.S. officials have said could easily be converted to military applications to threaten us.  According to the South China Morning Post:

El Salvador might be a small nation, but the United States is worried it has something more to offer mainland China than diplomatic recognition: a port that could be used for military purposes.

The Central American country officially cut ties with Taipei and established a formal alliance with Beijing on Tuesday, leaving Taiwan with just 17 nations that officially recognise its status.

While Taipei has accused Beijing of luring its allies away with generous aid offers, Washington sees the latest switch as not just a case of piling more pressure on the self-ruled island, but a move to shore up mainland China's security and strategic planning in the region.

Jean Manes, the US ambassador to El Salvador, tweeted on Tuesday that the United States was concerned about the Central American nation's decision to break ties with Taiwan.

"Without a doubt, this will impact our relationship with the government.  We continue supporting the Salvadoran people," she said.

The Post explains that the origins of this were skeevy: El Salvador tried to shake down Taiwan for development funds for the port, and Taiwan said it wouldn't get enough business to make the project sustainable.  Taiwan would simply lose whatever billions it would take to get the thing up.  Enter China, which doesn't really care if a project is economically sustainable; the Chinese are happy to pretend it is, because the object, of course, is military.

This is why U.S. officials are concerned.

For the rest of us, all we can do is ask, "How's that for gratitude?"

El Salvador is one of the leading exporters of illegal aliens to the U.S., housing one out of every five Salvadorans and more than a million people.  Home of MS-13 gangs, it's gotten $4.4 billion in aid from the U.S. for gang control, tax collection, malaria eradication, land reform, disaster relief, think-tanks, and other stuff.  What's more, its illegals have repeatedly been extended long stays in the U.S. after disasters.  It also has free trade with the U.S.  Have a problem?  Gringo is right there.  What's more, its illegals are among the lowest assimilated, lowest educated, and lowest English-speaking of all immigrants, meaning the U.S. pays billions that aren't counted in El Salvador's foreign aid package to house, educate, feed, clothe, jail, and medicate its illegals.  We do it all, and their government gives us a China base to worry about.

Maybe it's time to cut off aid, scrap free trade, and start stepping up immigration enforcement against this rogue state and the nationals it dumps on us.  Let China pick up the tab.  China has a long history of cleaning up and profiting from costly American adventures (it got all the oil after we expended all the blood and treasure to clean out Iraq).  We see the same pattern here.  We pay, and China cleans up.  So let China get a whiff of how costly it is to run an unsustainable military port.  And let El Salvador learn the hard way that China involvement isn't quite as rosy as the Chinese say it is (the way Malaysia has learned), and the gringo gravy train is done.

President Trump needs to get tough on this one.