China is stepping up efforts to expand its influence in the Pacific. After striking a deal with the Solomon Islands, it is now negotiating security pacts with two other island nations, US officials and allied countries said.
According to these sources, Beijing’s talks are further advanced with Kiritibati, a Pacific island nation 3,000 kilometers from Hawaii and home of the US IndoPacific Command.
An intelligence official from a USallied country said on condition of anonymity that Beijing is also in talks with at least one other Pacific island nation over a deal that will cover more or less the same area as the deal it reached with the Solomon Islands.
The warning that Beijing is trying to expand its influence in the Pacific comes as President Joe Biden visits Asia to reassure allies of commitment to regional security amid China’s campaign to expand its influence.
The talks with Kiribati follow the pact Beijing signed with the Solomon Islands, which some experts say will allow China to build a naval base in the country northeast of Australia. According to a draft leaked in March, the Solomon Islands pact will allow China to even deploy military forces to the islands, which has shocked the US and its allies in the IndoPacific, from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.
A US official said China has had its eyes on Kiribati for a long time, with intermittent discussions lasting years instead of months, with the goal of establishing a strategic presence in the island nations.
China, Midland
Michael Foon, Kiribati’s foreign minister, denied that his government was “involved in talks with any partner for a security agreement.” Opposition leader Tessie Eria Lambourne said she was unaware of the discussions but was worrying people about her country’s rapidly changing relationship with China. “We are next in Beijing’s plan to build its military presence at strategic points in the region,” he said.
The Solomon Islands pact helped make geopolitical tensions with China a central issue in Saturday’s election in Australia, which the opposition won. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to lead a large delegation visiting the islands next week.
In another sign Beijing is stepping up efforts to expand its presence in the region, China on Friday struck an agreement with Vanuatu to modernize an international airport in Luganville, which was a key US military base during World War II.
A State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the US takes concerns about security pacts, including those with Kiribati, very seriously, noting that there are fears China is also negotiating with Tonga and Vanuatu.
Beijing has security deals with other countries in the region, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea, but diplomats and security officials said the Solomon Islands deal was more farreaching and China may have bigger ambitions in Kiribati.
Beijing operated a space tracking station in the country until 2003, when the two parties split after Kiribati established diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Since 2019, when the country switched from Taipei to Beijing, diplomats have been looking for signs the tracking station might reopen. Experts say major advances in China’s military capabilities over the past two decades would make a Chinese air force or naval base or presence near Hawaii even more relevant today.
China is also working with Kiribati to upgrade an airstrip on Canton Island.
Tess Newton Cain, a Pacific affairs expert at Griffith University in Australia, said the pact with the Solomon Islands and strengthening ties with Kiribati reflect the trend towards a new phase in Chinese engagement. “These are new relationships that have developed very quickly,” he says. “It’s different from what we’re seeing in other parts of the region where there are more mature relationships.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Translation by Clara Allain