China hosts Pacific Island nations in bid to bolster diplomatic, trade ties

Al Jazeera

4 days ago

China is hosting a high-level meeting with 11 Pacific Island nations as it seeks to deepen ties and build what it calls a 'closer' community with 'a shared future' in the strategic region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is chairing the meeting in the city of Xiamen on Wednesday.
The president of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and top diplomats from Niue, Tonga, Nauru, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa are attending.
The two-day meeting is the third such gathering, but the first to happen in person in China.
Al Jazeera's Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the diplomats are expected to discuss trade, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, sustainability and climate change.
'For China, this is an opportunity to extend its influence and expand economic ties at a time when the United States is showing very little interest in this region, and we know increasingly that many of those countries are more aligned on China on things like investment, infrastructure, trade and even security assistance,' she said.
The meeting comes as United States President Donald Trump's cuts to foreign aid and the threat of tariffs fuel global uncertainty. Analysts say this has left the door open for China to step in.
'This lack of certainty makes the US a very challenging partner to work with,' said Tess Newton at the Griffith Asia Institute. 'Whereas other partners including China can offer, well you know we were here yesterday, we're here today, and we expect to be here tomorrow.'
The Chinese foreign ministry, announcing the meeting last week, said the objective of the meeting was to 'jointly build an even closer China-Pacific Island countries community with a shared future'.
Analysts say that for Beijing, that translates to greater economic aid, diplomatic engagement and the pursuit of a regional security pact.
China has already signed a security accord with the Solomon Islands in 2022, a year after deploying police to the ground in the capital, Honiara, following a series of riots there.
Beijing has also sent advisers to Vanuatu and Kiribati and wants to lock in a similar pact with other island nations.
'What China is trying to do … is to insert itself as a security player and in some cases through the angle of contributing to the individual security needs of Pacific countries such as policing,' said Mihai Sora, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute in Australia.
The meeting in Xiamen is 'an opportunity for China' to push its goals 'in its own space, on its own turf and on its own terms,' he added.
The topic of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own and lies off the coast of Xiamen, is also expected to be discussed at this meeting.
China has been gradually whittling away at the number of countries in the Pacific that retain ties with Taiwan, and in January of last year, Nauru also switched recognition to Beijing.
Taiwan now has three remaining allies in the region – Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu.
Al Jazeera's Yu said the region is of strategic, military and diplomatic significance for China.
'If you look at the region, these countries are very small, their economies are small and only one of them has a population that exceeds one million. That is Papua New Guinea,' she said.
'But the region is strategically extremely important to Beijing because it's home to crucial shipping lanes, deep sea cables, deep sea ports and potential mineral deposits underwater. Militarily, it could be strategically important, because if there could be any conflict in the future, this area could be important in terms of launching potential forward attacks on US territory, and also US ally Australia is very close by.'