Have you ever felt like escaping to your own desert island?

Jane Gaskin did exactly that, trading in the family home to begin a new life in the

tropics.

But she soon discovers that Paradise has its secrets.

I'm Alice Levine, and this is the price of Paradise,

the island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder. Wish you were here. Follow the price of Paradise Now wherever

you listen to podcasts. This is CBS I on the world with John Bachelor.

Here's John Bachelor.

Oceania, I welcome Cleopascal of the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy's,

this vast part of the globe.

The islands, the sovereign islands, the colonial islands, the peninsulas, all of this connected

to a contest between empires.

There is the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party, its empire, wishing to project power across the Pacific.

There is the United States and its allies, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the Philippines,

wishing to prevent China projecting power because once China moves

in, nobody else is ever invited again.

Cleo, a very good evening to you just when I thought it was safe to talk about other parts of Oceania.

We're back to the compact of federated states, the three island sovereign islands who depend upon the United States for defense.

That's the trade-off and you guided me to understand that worked its way through Congress, was endorsed, the money was validated,

and all is well in Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau. And then what's happened,

Clio? Let's start with the Federated States of Micronesia. What is the hesitation

about an agreement that is in train?

...