American Samoa's governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga says residents are enticing Chinese people with money into the territory in order to survive and live.
Pago Pago, American Samoa. Photo: AFP
Lolo was speaking in the United States during the annual federal Interagency Group on Insular Areas meeting in Washington DC.
Lolo says American Samoa is at the mercy of federal government mandates and regulations, and hopes they will be relaxed so that American Samoa can try to develop its economy.
He says American Samoans are having a hard time dealing with Chinese people coming into the territory but it cannot be helped, because residents need to survive and live.
A number of local businesses, mainly in retail, are operated and managed by Chinese people.