Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. claims the Pacific island nation of just 18,000 people is under assault from an influx of illegal drugs that threaten governmental and social stability. The culprits, he says, are Chinese nationals.
“Drugs have been on the rise, especially crystal meth, and we now have 13 Chinese imprisoned in Palau,” Whipps told reporters during the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM) his country hosted from late August to early September, expressing exasperation at a situation that has compounded prison overcrowding.
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Palau is one of few countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan rather than China and Whipps has been critical of Beijing. In 2024, he accused it of being behind a cyberattack on his country. China’s foreign ministry countered that the country “firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyberattacks.”
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In May 2025, a court in the Northern Mariana Islands sentenced a Chinese national to 25 years in prison in a methamphetamine case that stretched from Saipan and Guam to Palau, where he had fled and was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of another Chinese national before being extradited.
Whipps cited the case as an example of the problem’s cross-border nature and called for greater cooperation and improvement in sharing information in the Pacific region to prevent such “bad actors” from entering the region “because they are destroying our youth, destabilizing our countries.”
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Palau, located east of the Philippines and north of Indonesia, is not the only Pacific country facing drug challenges, the causes of which vary. The leaders recognize the problem and agreed in their PIFLM communique last month to “strengthen cooperation against transnational organized crime and illicit drug trafficking through enhanced intelligence sharing, coordination and maritime security cooperation.”
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David Manning, Papua New Guinea’s police commissioner, told Nikkei Asia that while meth and its precursors brought there arrive “mostly out of Asia,” the “large majority” of illegal drugs coming through is cocaine from Central and South America.
That route, commonly known as the Pacific Drug Highway, brings narcotics via yachts and semi-submersibles destined for the lucrative Australian and New Zealand markets. Between January and May, 17 metric tons of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, were seized in the Pacific, compared to 4.6 tons in all of 2025, Australian Federal Police said in May.
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Virginia Comolli, head of the Pacific Program at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said Chinese criminal groups are exploiting opportunities in Palau, as it “presents a combination of characteristics that can make it attractive to transnational criminal networks.” Those include its proximity to Asia and “limited law-enforcement, border-control and regulatory capacity.”
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In January, Whipps declared 2026 as the year to Just Say No to Illegal Drugs and launched a national working group in February to coordinate a unified response. He signed a bill in May that expands drug testing and increases penalties for serious drug-related offenses.
Palau is also beefing up border security, from investing in airport X-ray machines to stationing narcotics officers in post offices. In June, Japan delivered new drug detection devices, expanding Palau’s customs screening capabilities at different points of entry. The U.S. has also provided drug-sniffing dogs.
“We’re sending a message out there that Palau is a nation of laws, and we are going to not just sit idly by while foreign influences come and bring the drugs to try and destroy our communities,” Olegeriil said. “This is my message: we’re coming after you.”
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