The Pacific Islands, Samoa, Marianas, Guam, would be Chinese colonies within two weeks of independence. Guam is too valuable a piece of real estate to give up (in my opinion...)
Only PR is (marginally) large enough to qualify as a state. The others are not. Most Caribbean islands maintain some loose connection with Britain or France. Only the larger islands are completely independent... except Aruba and Curazao, which I believe finally cut ties with Netherlands.
I did not wish to offend a fellow conservative with my comment, andI apologize in advance for the following comment, which is a repeat of my previous disparaging comment:
The problem with Puerto Rico is that it is full of Puerto Ricans.