Pacific Ocean Why are the United States and China competing right now for the hearts of Kiribati, Fiji and other Pacific island nations?

Beijing

In the Pacific Ocean bubbling. China, the United States and Australia are fighting for the hearts of island nations right now.

Kiribati, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and other small points on the Pacific map are suddenly at the center of world politics.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the end of last week, he unexpectedly set out to tour the eight island states for ten days and serve them various co – operation agreements.

Frightened Australia and the United States are offering their own promises and agreements.

To the competition is a clear reason, says a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Helsinki Julie Chenwhich is launching a study on the role of the EU in the Indian and Pacific regions.

“This area is very important strategically, especially in the competition between China and the United States,” Chen says in a remote interview.

The United States has turned its gaze and military plans to the Pacific and the threat to China.

Read more: Tensions between China and the US are escalating in the Pacific, but if war breaks out, who would win? – Experts answer

An important goal for China, for its part, has long been to try to ensure that it has free access to the Pacific in various situations, Chen recalls.

The United States has a chain-like bloc of allies from Japan to Malaysia off the coast of China.

Read more: China is like an anxious tiger rattling the bars of its cage

If China got military bases “behind” those small islands in the Pacific and closer to the United States, it could disrupt U.S. military movements toward its allies and China.

China denies it would dream of building military bases on the islands. Australia and the United States are still skeptical. They remember how China for a long time untruely asserted that it would not build military artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Over here until then, island states have been largely influenced by the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Now China is breaking up the pack.

Other major players in the region were deeply shocked by China’s recent security agreement with Solomon Islands. According to the leaks, the agreement will allow visits by the Chinese navy and, at the request of Solomon Islands, the importation of armed forces into the islands.

Read more: China signed an agreement with a small island nation this week, the consequences of which Australia and the United States are very concerned about

Australia has traditionally had close relations with the Solomon Islands. Now Solomon Islands took over China, and Australia began to wonder what to do if a Chinese military base ever came 3,000 miles away.

3,000 miles is a short distance in the vast Pacific.

The United States has already stated that if a base were to become a Solomon Islands, the United States could intervene militarily.

Already previously in the United States, there were concerns about a leak that China is funding for the improvement of the airport on the island of Guangzhou, or rather the runway, with a few dozen residents in Kiribati.

It is only 3,000 miles from Hawaii, an important U.S. military center.

Kiribati has been considered close to the United States.

The importance of the region is well illustrated by the fierce fighting in Solomon Islands and Kiribati during World War II. Japan attacked between the United States and Australia.

Julie Chen points out that some of the islands in the FSM will soon have a cooperation agreement on hold. Under the agreement, the United States will be allowed to keep its troops there.

China is certainly interested in both the fate of that agreement and the region in general.

Japanese Nikkei magazine wondered how a great location for a Chinese military base would be one of the islands of Micronesia, just 700 kilometers from the U.S. island of Guam. Guam is also militarily important to the United States.

Chen sees that China has already managed to gnaw at U.S. influence in FSM.

A couple of islands have exchanged their diplomatic relations with Taiwan to China, which is close to the United States. So have Solomon Islands and Kiribati. China provides financial support and trade for the midfielders.

China’s the interest in the Pacific is therefore by no means sudden, Chen says. Scientists have been talking about the phenomenon for a long time.

While the West has mainly provided financial assistance, China has also provided trade. British The Guardian According to a study conducted last year, more than half of the Pacific Islands’ exports of wood, minerals and seafood went to China.

China has also been able to show its appreciation to the leadership of the often marginalized island nations with spectacular visits and words of respect.

In particular, Australia’s newly receded government that has downplayed climate change is ruining its relations with island nations that threaten to be submerged by climate change. That’s the number one thing for them, and they didn’t laugh much when Australian politicians joked about drowning the islands.

Australia’s new government has said it is on the other line.

The islands have a wide range of views on both China and the intensifying superpower competition. Some want to take financial benefits from wherever it comes from, some fear the region will suffer in the race and some fear China.

Fear is not dispelled by the fact that journalists not allowed to ask no questions from the Chinese Foreign Minister on the island tour.

May it may be that China is now stepping up its efforts in the Pacific as the United States has become more active in the region.

Last year, the United States signed the Aukus Safety Agreement with Australia and Britain, which will provide Australia with nuclear submarines. They can sneak off the coast of China.

The Quad – the “security dialogue” between the United States, Australia, Japan and India – has once again begun to hold military exercises and sign new agreements.

“China started to get really worried,” Julie Chen estimated.

Read more: China is nervous about “Asia’s NATO,” and therefore dislikes NATO’s expansion in Europe

Now it is exciting how the situation in the Pacific is evolving.

How is Foreign Minister Wang’s ongoing round of charm?

He had already visited four island states by Tuesday morning, all of whom had apparently signed bilateral agreements mainly related to the economy. The comprehensive economic and security agreement offered by China to the ten island states remained on the shelf, at least for the time being.

Australia, frightened by Chinese activity, sent a foreign minister late last week Penny Wongin Fiji to reassure Australia of its commitment to co-operation. Fiji just signed a new U.S. regional economic deal.

All countries will increase their investment in the region.

“The United States was already very concerned about China’s actions in the South China Sea, and it is certainly even more concerned [Kiinan kaavailemasta] About the Pacific Security Agreement, ”says Julie Chen.

It may be that in the future the United States will be more interested in the situation in Kiribati and its partners than in Europe. The Pacific is its own yard – a yard shared with China.