Pacific Islands Society

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Domestic Non-Profit Organization
Time for Australia to Rethink
Chinese Influence in Pacific
Islands
By Mr. Miles McKenna
Published: May 20, 2013

The 2013 Australian Defense White Paper
(DWP) has left pundits scratching their heads
rather than their favorite itchcould it really be
that the China threat is more puff and magic
than an actual dragon at the doorstep?

Abstraction aside, the new DWPs focus on
security in Australias near neighborhood
should give pause to policy hawks obsessed
with the next great clash of world superpowers.
The real issue here isnt whether China poses a
security threat to Australia. The real issue is the
threat it poses to Australian influence in the
region.

The DWP is nothing short of a repudiation
from the more hawkish stance of its 2009
predecessor. Rather than decrying Chinas
military spending as a threat to global stability
and suggesting it may be time to pick a side
between the United States and Asias largest
economy, the DWP is now taking a more
pragmatic position of partnership and shared
opportunity.

The latest Lowy Institute report, Big Enough for
All of Us: Geo-strategic Competition in the
Pacific Islands by Jenny Hayward-Jones, takes
that one step further. Hayward-Jones debunks
much of the hardline rhetoric framing Chinas
current interests in the South Pacific.
Both papers speak to the need to fundamentally
rethink what composes security in the South
Pacific. As Hayward-Jones writes, the Cold War
mentality of geo-strategic competition is not
only inappropriate, it is counter-productive.

Chinas ability to seriously challenge the role of
longstanding powers in the region such as
Australia and the United States is limited,
Hayward-Jones writes. Yet, there is this
insistence on measuring security in an outdated
framework.

What kind of security are we really talking about
here?

As Fijian High Commissioner to the United
Kingdom Solo Mara recently pointed out, the
security interests of the worlds superpowers
mean little to most Pacific Islanders.

In Papua New Guinea, 85% of the population
lives in rural areas relying on semi-subsistence
farming. How concerned are they over
submarines or nuclear deterrence?

A real security threat for Pacific Islanders is a
human security threat. The disastrous drought
in the Marshall Islands is a threat, as is water
scarcity and disastrous storms. These are all
threats intensified by climate change that
directly threaten peoples livelihoods.


Miles McKenna is a senior freelance foreign
correspondent based in London who covers
foreign policy issues and climate change in the
Asia-Pacific. He formerly worked in China and
Taiwan for a number of major international
andnational news outlets, including China Daily.
The Wire
Observations from Foreign Correspondents
Pacific Islands Society | The Wire | May 20, 2013
Australia has long been an ally and generous
donor to Pacific Island Countries. It has helped
to build resilience to these threats and helped in
recovering when they have occurred. The
problem is that Australia has been an
inconsistent ally, as a recent study by the
University of Melbourne explains.

And this is where China comes into things.

What growing Chinese engagement really
means in the region is simple: choice.

The government in Suva has a choice. The
trader in Nukualofa has a choice. Australia is
losing its securityit no longer controls the
policy space.

To those in the development community, the
finger wagging of China-skeptics is a shocking
display of ahistorical hypocrisy. Accusations of
Beijing wining and dining diplomats, locking
countries into oppressive debts, supporting
regimes and arming foreign militaries these
arent new threats, this isnt a new game. Its just
someone else playing it.

The reality is that many states are willing to
hedge their bets with China as the trump card.
Zhou Enlais Eight Principles of aid have
proven remarkably attractive to other late
developing countries, while simultaneously
making it more difficult for Western powers to
impose liberal economic and political values on
those who may not want them.

The argument has always been that China
lacked the soft power to ever truly make an
impact in geopolitics. It may be time to rethink
that.

China doesnt have to be the largest donor or
the strongest military presence to affect the
balance of power in the South Pacific. All it has
to do is offer a choice.



The views expressed are those of the author.