China will reportedly seek a wide-ranging security and economic deal with 10 Pacific nations during Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s trip to the region this week, according to Reuters news agency.
Wang will land in the Solomon Islands on Thursday, beginning a 10-day tour that will also take him to Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor between May 26 and June 4.
During the trip, Wang will attend the second China-Pacific Islands foreign ministers’ meeting in Fiji, where he is expected to push for a five-year action plan and joint communiqué.
The draft communiqué, provided to Reuters, details how China and the Pacific States can “strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the areas of traditional and non-traditional security.”
Details include a planned free trade zone between China and the Pacific Islands, but also agreements on police training and law enforcement operations, as well as plans to work together on data networks, cybersecurity and smart customs.
The last point would give Chinese tech giant Huawei the green light to enter the Pacific market and roll out 5G networks.
The company has been banned from operating in several Western and US-allied countries over security concerns related to its close ties to the Chinese state. According to Reuters, the United States and Australia have also so far blocked Huawei from building undersea cables and cellular networks in the Pacific.
The draft plan has alarmed at least one Pacific country, the Federated States of Micronesia, which is a close US ally.
President David Panuelo reportedly sent a letter to other leaders in the region urging them not to accept the communiqué, which would put undue pressure on China, according to a letter seen by the news agency.
He also warned that doing so could exacerbate tensions in the Pacific and help spark another “cold war” between China and the US.
“The practical implications…of Chinese control over our communications infrastructure, our maritime area and resources therein, and our security space, apart from the impact on our sovereignty, is that it increases the likelihood that China will be in conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States and New Zealand,” he was quoted as saying.
Panuelo also expressed concerns about allowing China to mass-monitor the Pacific Islands’ citizen and customs records.
But the letter also contained some criticism of Australia, whose lack of commitment to the Pacific has been cited as a key reason for China gaining a foothold in some countries in the region after the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with Beijing earlier this year.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday that the Pacific should be cautious about a potential deal, expressing concern that it was “negotiated in a rushed, non-transparent process.”
“That’s worth mentioning [China] has a pattern of offering shady, vague deals with little transparency or regional consultation in areas related to fisheries, resource management, development aid and, more recently, even security practices,” he told reporters.
He also said the prospect of a security deal was worrying and would “only aim to stoke regional and international tensions and heighten concerns about Beijing’s expansion of its internal — its internal security apparatus – into the Pacific.”
Australia’s newly appointed foreign minister, Penny Wong, is also on her way to the Pacific less than a week after taking office.
She flew to Fiji on Thursday to meet Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna.
“The visit in my first week as Foreign Secretary demonstrates the importance we place on our relationship with Fiji and our engagement in the Pacific region,” Wong was quoted as saying by Australia’s public broadcaster ABC.
“Australia will listen to our Pacific partners as we work together to address our common challenges and achieve our common goals – including addressing climate change, pandemic recovery, economic development and regional security.”