Political Life in the Pacific - Essay Example

POLITICS OF THE PACIFIC

Critically discuss the implications for the Pacific of the increasing presence of China in this region.

Introduction

The Pacific group of countries is separated by distance but the only thing that connects them together is the vast Pacific Ocean. The region is sparsely populated and the ocean certainly is very important here. The ocean is in fact considered to be the main provider and even now it is considered to be the main resource in order to survive economically (Kwiatkowska & Dotinga, 167). The region has been rightly named Oceania. It has three sub regions called Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia (Henderson & Reilley, 2). It has been observed that in the past few decades the Pacific group of counties has made immense progress in terms of economic growth compared to other regions. It has also gained a lot of importance in the “global economic order” as well. There has been an increment in both intra- regional and inter- regional flows in the area of trade and investment. There are basically five groups of countries in this region. It ranges from industrial giants like Japan and USA to land rich nations like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. One can even find rapidly industrialized economies like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan and along with that there are newly industrialized countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. The Pacific group also has developing nations like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos (Thompson, 20). The GDP growth in the Pacific group of countries has almost increased twenty times ranging from the period 1960 to 2005 which is indeed an indicator of a good performance. The improved performance of the Pacific group in terms of its GDP can be largely attributed to the performance of China in the economic sphere. In the year 2005, 74 percent of the GDP in this group was contributed by China alone (Tribe, Nixson & Summer, 84). In this context the paper seeks to examine the impact of the presence of China in the Pacific.

China’s presence

China’s increasing role in the Pacific group of countries has been a widely discussed topic. In the year 2007 sanctions imposed by Australia, New Zealand and United States compelled the self appointed prime minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, to send officials to China in order to improve the relations. There has been mixed reactions regarding China’s rise to power. It is often argued that the rise of China has been beneficial for the Pacific Island states as now they have more opportunities available. However not all other powers in this group are equally enthusiastic about China’s increasing power. Japan’s increase in aid in 2006 to the economically weaker countries of the Pacific group showed there clear uneasiness towards China’s expansion. China’s role in this region has also been a source of concern for Australia but it never said anything openly against its crucial trading partner. The presence of China has been admitted by New Zealand’s Minister for Defense and Pacific Islands Affairs, Phil Goff as a “growing reality” and he has urged China to look into the interests of the Pacific. United States in a tone quite similar to that found during the cold war, declared the need to keep the island states on their side but never mention opposed to which country. The views of political scientists like John Henderson and Benjamin Reilly have been quite straight forward. They have in fact bluntly pointed out the fact that in order to become a major power in the Asia- Pacific, China is “incorporating the Pacific islands.” At present the question is the role that China will play in these states and the response of United States. It is also opined that amidst the competition between the great powers one can expect the Pacific Island societies to face impositions as well as opportunities (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 27-28).

China’s global journey

China’s transformation from a ruined economy due to its socialistic policies to a global one following the open door policy is a remarkable journey. China is considered to be the fourth largest economy and it has a huge relative strength and purchasing power. China’s rise to power has certainly over shadowed performances in the field of growth of Japan and South Korea after the Second World War China had also faced a lot of internal problems but any sort of an uprising was firmly controlled by the government of China. Remarkable economic performance has been the major reason for China’s success and has played a benign role in its performance in the world stage. The achievement of China in terms of growth is mostly market driven with increased foreign investment and trade. As China has almost exhausted its domestic resources it is now exploring new areas for resources. China’s growing influence in the Pacific Island states has been a source of worry for the US because it is seeing China’s presence as an obstacle to its “own preeminent global role.” The issue of Taiwan has been a very sensitive one. China is not in favor of granting freedom to Taiwan and being a nation which is rising to power, China wants to maintain relationships with other states in order to reduce the possibility of any sort of threats. Apart from that China also wants to increase in its stand the global world and it wants to influence the global world (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 28-30).

China’s link with Oceania

While tracing China’s connections with Oceania one finds that there is a “deep cultural and historical roots.” The first settlers of Oceania shared a common origin with Taiwan. In the 1700s China was a market for the Pacific Island produce. The recruitment of Chinese laborers in the 19th century to work in Pacific Island plantations and mines resulted in a small but prominent group of Chinese people in these states. The presence of Chinese immigrants was often thought to be the major reason for depressed wages. In 1998, in the Tongan pro- democracy movement it was clearly pointed out that the presence of the Chinese immigrants was affecting the Tongans work opportunities and as a result many Chinese shopkeepers were asked to vacate the area for their own safety. In spite of all the initial problems the Chinese are held in high esteem and their heritage is widely accepted (Henderson & Reilley, 5-6).

China and Oceania relation- its impact

China’s growing power has affected almost every part of the globe and its impact is felt even in the small isolated countries of Pacific Islands. As mentioned before China’s rise to power has been both a source of opportunities as well as concern for both the countries in the island and the metropolitan powers which had all along enjoyed undisputed power. The major concern has been that China’s power will increase its competition with Taiwan in order to get diplomatic recognition. This in turn will have its impact on the “economic, geopolitical, and geostrategic” part of the region. China’s economic growth has also been a source of bigger market and investment which is free from any bindings unlike those imposed by Western countries.

Economic growth and diplomacy in the international sphere has helped China to establish itself as a supreme power. Due to the availability of cheap labor there were a lot foreign investors who came and invested. The expansion of the Chinese business beyond the border helped them to establish contacts with the rest of the world. In the year 2006, Premier Wen had met with the leaders of the Pacific Island countries who have diplomatic relations with China and as a part of that diplomacy promises were made to provide assistance and investment by the Chinese. Investment by Chinese companies in this region would guarantee new opportunities especially in case of industries which extracts natural resources like fisheries, forestry, and mining. A classic example of this was seen in Papua New Guinea where the Ramu nickel and cobalt mine located in the Madang Province of the country was purchased by a Chinese company. It was claimed by the Papua New Guinea Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Paul Tienstern in 2007 that the importance of Chinese investment lies in the fact that it can “turn around the country’s sagging economy.” In countries like Fiji shops were set up by the Chinese textile companies so as to take the benefit of their access to Australian and New Zealand markets (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 134-135).

Most of the island states in the Pacific are dependent on aid to a large extent. The reduction of aid from the powerful countries like United States and Britain had made Japan the main donor. However Japanese aid is backed by commercial motive especially to gain access to the region which is rich in tuna resources. Moreover Japan’s aid has been made to “complement its alliance relationship with the United States.” China by contrast has used its aid as a means to compete strategically with the United States and other allies. There are two major reasons which explain why the island countries look up to Asia for aid. Continuous criticisms from the Western donors and their indifference to the needs of the island states have increased their resentment towards the western donors. The aid given by China is more political in nature than economic. Most of the aid had been for the establishment of “prestige projects’ like the construction of a new parliamentary complex in Vanuatu, government office in Samoa, foreign ministry headquarters in Papua New Guinea, and many others. As all the required materials and labor was provided by China so little or nothing development from the economic point of view was witnessed in the recipient countries (Henderson & Reilley, 9).

The end of the Cold War witnessed the Western aid donors attaching a lot of different political values like transparency, human rights, government accountability in while making arrangement for aid. Hence when democracy was uprooted in Fiji and Solomon Islands Western donors curtailed their aid to these places. This act was highly criticized. On the contrary no such thing were seen in case of China and as a result China was praised for following the policy “non- interference” which was in sharp contrast to the policies followed by Australia and New Zealand. There was also switching of diplomatic relation from Taiwan to China by Tonga in 1998. This decision was motivated by his personal reasons. The only sound reason given by him was that he disapproved Taiwan adopting democracy and hence switched its diplomatic loyalties. Apart from that a diplomatic relation with China ensured a direct entry for Tonga in the United Nations. Thus here we can see that some countries have also been benefitted due to the presence of China (Henderson & Reilley, 9-10).

There is also an economical dimension in China’s interest in the Pacific group of islands. It has been observed that for the Pacific group of countries China is an important trading partner and here the trade balance is heavily in favor of China. China has in fact invested around $800 million in this region. Extensive mineral resources and forestry is found only in Melanesia but due to lack of stability in the political field not much development has been witnessed. Even Micronesia and Polynesia has every little thing to offer which might attract investment. Under such circumstances thorough oceanographic research was undertaken by China which included analysis of the minerals in the seabed in that region. China’s interest in Oceania’s fishing resources sparked a concern in New Zealand in 2001 when Chinese fishing fleet had established a base in Fiji (Henderson & Reilley, 9).

As mentioned before the presence of China in the Pacific as also brought many challenges. The labor and environmental standards set up in the countries where China was investing often came in conflict with the Chinese mode of operation. For example, the working conditions of the garment sweat shop in Fiji had been a topic of immense concern. The labor and environmental conditions found at the Ramu mine in Papua New Guinea had also been under the scanner. In fact the conditions over that had provoked remarks from the Labour Secretary of Papua New Guinea, David Tibu. He had said, “The Chinese developer does not seem to have any standards and I will not allow my countrymen and women to be used as slaves.” Security concerns in the Pacific countries due to Chinese presence have also been a major issue. It has been observed that due to the setting up of Chinese business there has been an influx of Chinese citizens who are found to be involved in a number of “undesirable activities” like murder, drug, illegal resource extraction, and smuggling of people. For example, in the year 2000 heroin of 357 grams was seized from a Chinese citizen in Suva, Fiji. The finding of the biggest “methamphetamine laboratory in the Southern hemisphere” in Suva further raised the threats to security due to Chinese presence (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 135-136).

The presence of China has also been a topic for debate due to existence of a never ending struggle for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan. Located at a distance of about one hundred miles off the southeast coast of the mainland is Taiwan which is a large island province of China. It is separated from the mainland by the Taiwan Straits (Wang, 1). An important aspect of China’s Taiwan policy had been their refusal to give an international space to Taiwan. China’s aim to isolate Taiwan got a boost when the Republic of China (ROC) lost their seat in the United Nations. Since then the diplomatic scuffle between China and Taiwan was ongoing. The quest for freedom by Taiwan is looked upon as a crime by the Chinese and thinks that it is like “splitting of the motherland.” They want Taiwan to accept that they are an integral part of China (Friedman, 41-42). We are aware of the fact that the fight for international space between the People’s Republic of China and the ROC has been the basis of conflict between China and Taiwan. To form a country, sovereignty is a very crucial aspect and China is aware of the fact that if international bodies don’t recognize the legal existence of Taiwan then the issue can be solved easily. Thus all possible methods were applied by China to isolate Taiwan (Friedman, 46-47). The continuous struggle between these two countries results in the entanglement of the other Pacific countries in their competition. As a result there is a division of diplomatic ties between China and Taiwan in case of the independent countries of the Pacific group. There are seven countries which have diplomatic relations with China while six of them have it with Taiwan. The tussle often becomes advantageous for the Pacific countries in the sense that these countries use their competition to extract aid and other types of assistance (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 136).

There has also been mixed opinions regarding China’s “assertive” presence in the Pacific. There are island countries which have diplomatic relation with Taiwan but at the same time they are not hesitating to take advantage of trade opportunities with China. A classic example of this can be seen in case of Palau and Solomon islands who are trading with China but they have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In the same way one finds Papua New Guinea and Fiji trading with Taiwan though they have diplomatic relations with China. According to Susan Windybank the role of China as a major player in that region and its diplomatic competition with Taiwan “is counterproductive” (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 136). China’s presence has always been under the scanner from the Western country’s point of view. However in case of the countries in that group the experience as mentioned before had been mixed and it had affected both China and the concerned country of the Pacific. Solomon Island’s trade relation with China has benefitted them because China provided them a market for their primary products. On the other hand the demand for raw materials in case of China was provided by timber and fish available in the island (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 141). A flow of aid was seen from China to Fiji and long with that there was preferential sugar agreement and special business links were established with the Chinese province by Fiji (Wesley-Smith & Porter, 119). Fiji had always maintained “unofficial cordial ties” with Taiwan though they have official ties with China (Sutter, 157).

Concluding remarks

The emergence of China as a powerful nation was indeed a remarkable event in history. China’s venturing out beyond its territories to meet its domestic requirement in the Pacific group of countries has been an immensely debated topic especially because the presence of China has always been regarded with suspicion by some. Many writers have pointed out the negative local impacts of China’s presence before assessing the long term impacts. Most of the literature written regarding this has not focused on the welfare of the islanders instead the focus has been on the threat regarding the position of U.S. due to the presence of China. Authors like Henderson and Reilly had projected the presence of China as a threat to global interests. In fact China’s investment in the world market along with its rival powers can prevent any sort of confrontation was completely overlooked. No evidence till now has been given to suggest that any sort of military action is being planned by the Chinese in this region. Further one certainly cannot deny the competition between China and America but China while expanding in Oceania and Caribbean never wanted to challenge the hegemonic power of the U.S. in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thus one finds that the increasing number of China’s activity in this region is motivated by economic need for trade and natural resources to meet domestic demands. Even political interests were also a part of the agenda. At present the interests of China and other powers who are actively operating in this area are any different.