Deals sought as China casts Pacific net
Beijing is seeking a deal with 10 Pacific countries offering policing, security, cyber support and a free-trade agreement, escalating Xi Jinping’s grab for influence.
Beijing is seeking a deal with 10 Pacific countries offering policing, security, cyber support and a new China-Pacific free-trade agreement, dramatically escalating Xi Jinping’s grab for regional influence.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will seek support for the proposed deal at a meeting of Pacific Island foreign ministers during an unprecedented regional eight-nation trip starting on Thursday, as Australia’s new Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, embarks on her own Pacific blitz to counter China’s efforts to win over the nation’s traditional partners.
Senator Wong said “after a lost decade we’ve got a lot of work to do to regain Australia’s position as the partner of choice in the Pacific, in a region that’s less secure and more contested”.
A draft agreement and five-year action plan sent by Beijing to 10 Pacific Island nations, first revealed by Reuters, proposes strengthened “exchanges and co-operation in the fields of traditional and non-traditional security“.
Mr Wang will seek agreement on the plan at a meeting on Monday with Pacific foreign ministers in Fiji, midway through his regional trip that will also take in visits to Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
It follows China’s controversial security deal with the Solomon Islands, which Australia and the US fear could open the way for a Chinese base less than 2000km off Cairns.
The proposed agreement says China would provide “intermediate and high-level police training” and forensic laboratory processing for Pacific Islands police forces, as well as cyber security, customs and data network support.
It also flags a China-Pacific Islands free-trade area, and support for action on climate change and health.
Senator Wong will visit Fiji on Thursday in her first Pacific Islands visit, meeting Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and Pacific Islands Forum secretary-general Henry Puna “to discuss how we can best secure our region and help build a stronger Pacific family”.
The trip will be the first in a burst of regional visits by Senator Wong, who is expected to visit almost every one of Australia’s Pacific partners in coming weeks. “China has made its intentions clear. So too are the intentions of the new Australian government,” she said. “We want to help build a stronger Pacific family. We want to bring new energy and more resources to the Pacific.
“And we want to make a uniquely Australian contribution including through our Pacific labour programs and new permanent migration opportunities.”
Anthony Albanese will also begin a series of important regional trips, starting with Indonesia, in coming weeks. He will then visit Papua New Guinea as soon as possible after the country’s national elections, which run from July 2-22.
The Prime Minister exchanged tweets with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday, telling him he looked forward to visiting Jakarta and deepening co-operation and economic ties between the neighbours.
“Look forward to working closely with you in advancing our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, including the concrete implementation of IA-CEPA,” Mr Joko said.
Mr Albanese and Senator Wong will also attend the Pacific Island Forum in mid-July, where they will present the nation’s more ambitious climate change policies to show that Australia is listening to its Pacific partners.
The draft China-Pacific deal has already sparked objections, with Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo warning the agreement could spark a new “Cold War” between China and the West.
In a letter obtained by Reuters, Mr Panuelo said the proposed deal would shift Pacific Island signatories “very close into Beijing’s orbit, intrinsically tying the whole of our economies and societies to them”.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security program director Michael Shoebridge also warned against the agreement, saying it showed “the scale and speed of Beijing’s ambitions in the South Pacific”.
“It’s a dystopian future they are offering to the people of the South Pacific,” he said.
“It is backed by seemingly free opaque concessional loans, and packaged with lots of schmoozing and cash for Pacific political figures … and it’s got a gravitational attraction that audited investment and aid spending from Australia doesn’t.”
Mr Shoebridge said Australia needed to respond with a Pacific version of the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations framework, offering visa-free travel and the ability for regional workers to take up employment in Australia.
“No aid and engagement increase will match that. And nothing Beijin
g can offer would either,” Mr Shoebridge said.
Senator Wong’s Fiji trip comes less than a day after she returned to Australia from Quad talks in Japan with Mr Albanese where they discussed rising geostrategic competition in the South Pacific with US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
The Australian understands Mr Biden’s senior advisers were “very positive” about working with the Albanese government to expand the reach of the Quad and its allies in the Pacific.
But Mr Wang’s latest Pacific tour is aimed at lifting China’s regional diplomacy efforts to new heights, according to the Lowy Institute’s senior fellow for East Asia, Richard McGregor.
“Senior Chinese leaders including Xi Jinping have visited Pacific nations before, but there has never been, as far as I know, a high-profile minister making a trip of this dimension and length,” he said.
“When you consider the extent of China’s global interests and the relatively small size of the Pacific countries, that tells you immediately that Beijing has ambitious long-term plans in the region.”
The trip, which runs until June 4, is “beneficial to the peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Wang Wenbin said China attached “great importance to developing friendly relations with Pacific island nations”.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the Chinese Foreign Minister’s one-day visit, with a 20-strong delegation, would be a “milestone” in the two countries’ relationship.
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