Two Chinese nationals show up in the Marshall Islands to implement a grandiose plan: A special economic zone on an atoll of the poor Pacific island nation. But soon the dream of the free trade zone turns into a political scandal – in its course the two almost succeed in overthrowing the elected president. Now they are on trial, but the question remains: Who are Cary Yan and Gina Zhou? Business people? Fraudsters who wanted to create a money laundering paradise? Or agents of the Chinese government who were to establish a state within a state on the territory of a close US ally? For the Pacific island states have recently become the centre of a bitter power struggle between China and the USA. An episode about the geo-strategic importance of a long-neglected region, the island theory, gray-zone warfare, and a Chinese book on asymmetric warfare that rose to worldwide fame.