GEIS-新闻详情

China’s push for agreement with Pacific island nations stalls

2022-05-31 00:00:00.0 铸币报-政治原网页

SUVA (FIJI) : A proposal for deeper security and trade ties between China and Pacific island nations didn’t advance at a summit involving top officials from those countries, after at least one leader said it could give Beijing too much influence in the region.

China had planned at the summit to press for the regional agreement, which would have expanded law enforcement and cybersecurity cooperation, while exploring the possibility of creating a free-trade zone between China and Pacific island countries. But days before the meeting, a letter from the president of the Federated States of Micronesia, which has close ties with Washington, became public and warned Pacific nations to be cautious about the deal.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visiting Fiji for Monday’s summit as part of a 10-day tour of the region, said that China and Pacific island nations had come to agreements in certain areas, such as supporting national sovereignty, pursuing common development and prosperity and advocating multilateralism. Another Chinese official said the regional proposal would be discussed later.

“There has been general support," Qian Bo, China’s ambassador to Fiji, said after the summit, when asked about the proposed regional agreement. “Of course, there are some concerns on some specific issues."

David Panuelo, Micronesia’s president, wrote ahead of the summit that signing on to that deal would increase the likelihood that the Pacific would end up as collateral damage amid the rivalry between the U.S. and China, and take attention away from efforts to mitigate climate change, a crucial issue in the region. In the letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, he expressed concerns that the deal would give China too much control over communications infrastructure, allowing calls and emails to be intercepted.

Some foreign-policy experts didn’t expect China to get many Pacific nations to sign on to a regional deal all at once, but such an arrangement could still be tempting for some countries that would be drawn to China’s focus on climate change, alleviating poverty and boosting regional economies following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are important issues and these are precisely the issues that China is addressing in its regional plan," said Steven Ratuva, a Pacific scholar and professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “The only thing China might be able to do is pick off countries one by one—I think they’re already doing it."

The Pacific, home to major shipping lanes and fisheries, has become a renewed focus of competition between the U.S. and China. Some Pacific island nations fought alongside the U.S. in World War II and have longstanding ties with Washington, but China has recently sought to gain influence through security pacts and funding infrastructure in the region.

Illustrating that competition, Mr. Wang last week concluded a trip to the Solomon Islands, where he signed several accords that include enabling closer engagement of diplomats and more cooperation on infrastructure, energy and other industries. Those deals came around a month after China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, alarming the U.S. and its allies who were concerned the agreement could eventually allow for a Chinese military presence in the country.

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Mr. Wang said on Monday that people don’t need to be anxious or nervous about China’s actions in the Pacific, given that China is a major developing country and that it is helping other developing countries all over the world out of a sense of responsibility.

“The common development and prosperity of China and all the other developing countries would only mean greater harmony, greater justice, and greater progress of the whole world," he said.

The U.S., which maintains a military presence in Guam, has sent its own top diplomats to Pacific countries in recent months and has put a renewed focus on building a network of alliances to counter China. Last week, the U.S. said that Fiji—just days before hosting China’s foreign minister—would sign on to President Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the 14th country to do so and the first Pacific island nation.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama on Monday also didn’t directly address the proposed regional agreement with China, but he said that consensus is important among Pacific island nations. Fiji is one of the largest and most developed countries in the region and Mr. Bainimarama, who ousted the national government in a 2006 coup, but has served as prime minister since elections were restored in 2014, is seen as an influential figure in the area.

Underscoring Fiji’s important role, Australia’s new foreign minister, Penny Wong, also visited the country last week. She discussed how Australia’s new center-left government would have a renewed focus on climate change, which is considered by many Pacific island nations to be an existential threat, as low-lying areas could be inundated by rising sea levels from warmer temperatures.

Ms. Wong took questions from journalists outside government buildings in Suva, Fiji’s capital, but Mr. Wang’s visit to Fiji has been tightly controlled and media access was restricted at several of his events. Mr. Wang didn’t take any questions from reporters during a press conference with Mr. Bainimarama and the Chinese delegation moved around the capital under heavy police escort. A Chinese flag fluttered outside the Grand Pacific Hotel, where meetings between Fijian and Chinese officials were held.

After his meeting with Mr. Wang, Mr. Bainimarama, the Fijian prime minister, tweeted: “The Pacific needs genuine partners, not superpowers that are super-focused on power."