China’s Pacific Island strategy tour

[Cetacea]

Since last Thursday China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a 20-strong delegation have been on an eight-nation tour of the South Pacific region with stops in the Solomons, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

While the official agenda says discussions are centered on "climate change, pandemic response and peace and security". Documents signed in Samoa include the Exchange of Letters for a Police Fingerprint laboratory, the Handover Certificate for the completed Arts & Culture Centre, and an Economic & Technical Cooperation Agreement for projects to be determined and mutually agreed between the two countries.

An earlier agreement between Solomons and China signed last month went further and allows Chinese security personel to be deployed in the Solomons to help ‘maintaining social order, protecting people's safety, aid, combating natural disasters and helping safeguard national security.’ Both the Solomons and Beijing have denied there is any intentiin for a Chinese Military presence. However there is discussion about China establishing a police training centre.

The Pacific pivot is part of a broad 5 year strategy for China covering everything from fisheries to infrastructure to police operations.

Of course Australia and New Zealand are starting to scramble in response with the Australia Foreign Minister flying to Fiji to woe Pacific leaders back to Australian influence there and the NZ Prime Minister flying to the US where she is seeking a meeting with POTUS
Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo warned the agreement seems "attractive" at first glance but would allow China to "acquire access and control of our region".

The Solomons and other Pacific Nations are asserting their own sovereignty as a reaction to the benign paternalism that has been coming from Australia and NZ in particular. While Australia has traditionally been the biggest aid provided to the Pacific it has come with direction of Australian ‘consultants’ telling the Pacific communities whats good for them. China on the other hand is willing to provide huge infrastructure spends on projects favoured by the pacific leaders themselves and such chequebook diplomacy is effective in small impoverished nations dependent on foreign remittances and aid.
Of course Im concerned about any foreign influence getting control in the Pacific, but really the Pacific has a real and persistent history of colonialism from the western coalition of UK, France, US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, there is no similar colonial history for China and so no reason to think that China will be any worse for the region than the US alliance has been

But what do you all think NSG? Is it a storm in a chai cup or is this really going to shake my coconuts?

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/ ... nd-nations

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wi ... p-85037597


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[Easter]

I’d love to be in the room for the Australian Foreign Minister explaining why partnering with harsh police states is concerning given recent events.

[Sordhau]

The Chinese Empire attempts to expand. This time it's particularly interesting though because unlike their adventures in the South China Sea or in Africa, the Pacific Islands have in general been under nominal U.S. influence since the end of WWII. American naval supremacy is the reason many of those Pacific Islands are guaranteed U.S. military support in the event of invasion. Interesting to see how Washington responds... if it does at all.

[TomKirk]

Jacinda also went on Stephen Colbert while she was here: smart move.

[Bonggongland]

Jacinda also went on Stephen Colbert while she was here: smart move.

Makes you less likely to suspect her of being the obvious ISIS plant that she is

[Infected Mushroom]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

[Stellar Colonies]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

Claiming the entirety of the South China Sea is not very reasonable.

[Washington Resistance Army]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

>New Zealand imperialism

[Soveiniesberg]

Didn't/Isn't PRC doing the same thing in Africa? Or am I just having an ADHD moment?

[Samudera Darussalam]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

> legitimate South China Sea border disputes

As a Southeast Asian I'd like to disagree.

Also China taking anti-colonial role? Lol
They are here to enlarge their sphere of influence, not much different from the other countries you mentioned.

[Side 3]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

Remind me which country is currently claiming other country's territorial waters? Or how about the one that's using paramilitary units to bully other country's fishermen within their EEZ?

[Infected Mushroom]

Didn't/Isn't PRC doing the same thing in Africa? Or am I just having an ADHD moment?

China is creating win-win situations in Africa with investments, loans and support for infrastructure. The colonial powers came in, used military force to take them over, keep them down, extract resources, kept them from industrializing and then left (exploitation). Then they largely ignored these new countries. But China is offering them a way out.

In this new model of “imperialism,” both sides benefit. China is now trying to use what’s worked in Africa with respect to the Pacific nations too. This is a win-win for all sides.

[Haganham]

It's a debt trap

[Picairn]

Classic balance of power display from the Pacific Islands.

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

> Legitimate South China Sea disputes

Lmao imagine buying into Chinese propaganda this hard.

[Durius]

The Pacific is home to many nations who recognize Taiwan. More than anything, China is trying to woo them into dropping their recognition in order to facilitate a possible future takeover of the country.

[-Astoria-]

Classic balance of power display from the Pacific Islands.

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

> Legitimate South China Sea disputes

Lmao imagine buying into Chinese propaganda this hard.

Given the user, that should not be surprising.

[Drongonia]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

>New Zealand imperialism
lmfao what, New Zealand barely has two dollars to rub together. We're not exactly an "imperialist state", infact I would say that's to our detriment. If New Zealand and Australia had more control over the Pacific this thread wouldn't even exist as the point would be moot.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Isn’t the usual American response to Russian nationalists that “Eastern European countries have a right to choose their own fates, and if they choose to throw their lot in with Nato then that’s that”?

Well the South Pacific countries have a right to choose their own fates also, and if they choose to throw their lot in with China then Australia and the United States have nobody to blame but themselves for failing to present these countries with a more persuasive offer.

Aligning with China is a risky idea and everyone knows it. If the United States and her western allies haven’t been so blatantly contemptuous of the interests of smaller and less powerful states, they would not even be considering this, let alone eagerly signing on. But they were, so they are.

Imperialist countries seeking to maintain their sphere of influence have zero moral grounds to criticise other imperialist countries trying to build one.

[Ducksberg]

Isn’t the usual American response to Russian nationalists that “Eastern European countries have a right to choose their own fates, and if they choose to throw their lot in with Nato then that’s that”?

Well the South Pacific countries have a right to choose their own fates also, and if they choose to throw their lot in with China then Australia and the United States have nobody to blame but themselves for failing to present these countries with a more persuasive offer.

Aligning with China is a risky idea and everyone knows it. If the United States and her western allies haven’t been so blatantly contemptuous of the interests of smaller and less powerful states, they would not even be considering this, let alone eagerly signing on. But they were, so they are.

Imperialist countries seeking to maintain their sphere of influence have zero moral grounds to criticise other imperialist countries trying to build one.

Yes, but Australia and the US aren't going to invade the islands to stop them from joining China.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Yes, but Australia and the US aren't going to invade the islands to stop them from joining China.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, if the partnership grows closer than the initial tentative moves being made now.

It would fit the usual American modus-operandi perfectly to use the CIA to astroturf a coup and send in the marines to "protect" the new "democratic" government. Or maybe they won't bother and simply bomb away until the pro-Chinese government is too weak to maintain effective control over the country.

In any case, if these countries are serious about taking on a pro-Chinese foreign policy line, they want a Chinese military guarantee and they want one quickly, because otherwise they might as well be duck food for the USN.

[Aerlanica]

Didn't/Isn't PRC doing the same thing in Africa? Or am I just having an ADHD moment?

China is creating win-win situations in Africa with investments, loans and support for infrastructure. The colonial powers came in, used military force to take them over, keep them down, extract resources, kept them from industrializing and then left (exploitation). Then they largely ignored these new countries. But China is offering them a way out.

In this new model of “imperialism,” both sides benefit. China is now trying to use what’s worked in Africa with respect to the Pacific nations too. This is a win-win for all sides.

Ah yes, i too can not think of any times the Chinese Communist Party used it's military to forcibly annex other territories to extract natural resources, suppress local population or exert political influence.

To think the Chinese Communist Party would invade or occupy places like...oh...i don't know, Tibet, Vietnam or even Xingjiang, is just...mind boggling. All just western propaghanda to make them look better!

Never happened in 1951 (and later 1959), 1978 and 1949 respectively. I mean...that would be stupid right? As if China would do that right? i'm just a random fool who doesn't know anything!

And if you think i'm being serious, think again! I'm being as brutally sarcastic as anything! haha!

(And before you say "Oh BuT THe uSA iNVadEd Vietnam and IraQ and-" yes, we know, congratulations, don't need to tell us what we already know it doesnt excuse China's above actions.)

[Sordhau]

This is the PRC aligning with smaller countries to oppose Australian/NZ imperialism. These Pacific island nations, often overlooked and pushed around, can lend vocal support to the PRC and its legitimate South China Sea and land border disputes. Meanwhile, China is willing to help and invest. I like it when China takes on an anti-colonial role.

>New Zealand imperialism

You dare mock the glorious Kiwi Empire whose Great Pacific Dominion stretches from the shores of Chile to the coasts of Madagascar!? In the name of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Jacinda I 'the Great' of the House of Ardern, I condemn thee to death! The Maori Battalions will make quick work if you, villain!