How Fiji got a nasty lesson in Chinese authoritarianism
The Pacific nation watched in shock as Chinese security agents marched what it said were 77 criminal suspects onto a plane and flew them away for detention in China.
When four Chinese detectives breezed into police headquarters in Suva in the middle of 2017, it quickly became apparent they weren’t in Fiji’s capital merely to help with an inquiry. Instead, the officers planned to carry out the investigation – into Chinese nationals suspected of running internet scams from the South Pacific island – pretty much as if they were back in China.
“Everything was done by them,” said a former Fijian police officer who was in the Suva headquarters at the time, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Fiji police was only there to assist in the arrest, nothing else. All the statements, recordings and the uplifting of all exhibits was done by the Chinese.”
