China wants to expand its territory
And it’s moving into the Pacific
With an agreement that could put small island nations at its mercy
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Matt Gnaizda, filling in today for Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to get ten Pacific Island nations to sign onto a
sweeping agreement on security, policing, and data management.
This is the “China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision”.
And this is China’s five-year action plan for implementing that vision.
These two documents are a big deal for China.
So much so, that Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his delegation are actually visiting seven
of those nations in person this week.
He’s also meeting the other three nations virtually.
The ten island nations China is trying to woo include:
The Federated States of Micronesia Kiribati
Papua New Guinea The Solomon Islands
Vanuatu Fiji
Tonga Samoa
The Cook Islands And Niue
Now, this may surprise you, but there are a lot of details that China is trying to keep
secret.
Reporters trying to cover Wang Yi’s island visits are being kept in the dark.
For example, “Journalists seeking to cover the Solomon Islands leg of the tour for international
outlets say they have been blocked from attending press events, while those journalists who
have been allowed access are extremely limited in their ability to ask questions.”
What we do know is that the Chinese Communist Party has carefully written those two documents
to outline what they want from these small countries.
One thing they want is to set up Confucius Institutes there.
Confucius Institutes teach Mandarin language—and along with it, communist party culture.
With important phrases like, “台灣是中國的一部分” and “天安門沒發生過任何事情”
Confucius Institutes are bad news, and these Pacific Island nations should know that by
now.
In 2019, Canada already began to get rid of some of China’s Confucius Institutes—over
concerns these programs were silencing free speech, and exerting Beijing’s political
influence.
And in 2021, the US Senate approved a bill that would stop federal funding for schools
that had Confucius Institutes.
But the Confucius Institutes are the mildest concern in those agreements.
China’s “Common Development” agreement also discusses cooperation on cyberspace.
It says it seeks to “forge a community with a shared future in cyberspace featuring peace,
security, openness, cooperation and order”.
Sounds nice, right?
But reading between the lines, it paves the way for the Chinese regime to help build these
countries’ telecom and internet infrastructure.
A lot of these places do need better internet access.
I bet Huawei could help!
And if a Chinese company builds a country’s cell towers and underwater fiber optic cables,
guess what?
China will control them.
And that means China can cut off the internet if there’s a dispute.
That’s a lot of leverage.
Alternatively, China can use their own access points to monitor what people are doing online,
or saying over the phone.
I mean, why just tap the president’s phone, when you tap an entire country?
Of course, China promises it won’t do that.
Ok.
And on top of that, it would allow the Chinese Communist Party to potentially set some of
the rules for those countries’ internets.
You know, for the sake of peace and security.
What could go wrong with letting the country with the least free speech in the world build
your internet infrastructure?
Another thing the agreement includes is allowing Chinese ships to fish in these countries’
local waters.
This...is a horrible idea.
China wants this because there are hardly any fish left in the waters around China.
Why?
Extreme overfishing, and the complete lack of environmental protection.
So now, China wants to export these problems to smaller countries.
Or as Quartz so elegantly puts it, “China has fished itself out of its own waters, so
Chinese fishermen are now sticking their rods in other nations’ seas.”
With the agreement, “China...wants to jointly develop a marine plan for fisheries—which
would include the Pacific’s lucrative tuna catch.”
If this happens, local fishermen will be out of work.
But that won’t even matter, because within a decade, Chinese overfishing will deplete
all the tuna, anyway.
But if that upsets people to the point of protesting, no problem!
Because China’s proposed agreement also includes training these countries’ local
police in Chinese tactics.
I’ll explain more after the break.
Welcome back.
Beijing’s “China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision” would be bad
news for the people in every country foolish enough to sign it.
And one reason is, it would have China train local police.
Make no mistake:
This is not training for community policing, or emergency response.
It’s for monitoring citizens...
and suppressing dissent.
I know first-hand what mainland Chinese training does to local police.
When we were covering protests in Hong Kong in 2014, local police were actually polite.
Even during the height of protests, police violence was uncommon.
Five years later, we went back to Hong Kong.
By this point, Hong Kong police had gotten training in China.
And Hong Kong may have even integrated mainland officers directly into their force.
That’s why in 2019, Hong Kong police acted like this.
They were constantly tear gassing everyone, including journalists...
and beating the crap out of unarmed protesters.
When you’re trained by a hammer, even the most peaceful protesters start to look like
nails.
Now imagine you’re the leader of a small island nation, and you just happen to have
these kind of Chinese-trained police at your disposal.
What are you going to do when the people try to go against you?
Or, you know, when they protest China’s presence on your island?
And if that’s not enough of a reason to stop this agreement, the Chinese Communist
Party also wants to build military bases on some of the Pacific Islands.
I’m not saying they’re *going to.* I’m saying they want to.
The agreement does state that China and the Pacific islands will “strengthen exchanges
and cooperation in the fields of traditional and non-traditional security”.
Which is terrifyingly vague.
And China will never outright admit it plans to build military bases.
But already, China’s secret agreement with The Solomon Islands grants “Chinese military
and police significant access.”
And while the Solomon Islands leadership *said* the China security deal won't include an actual
military base...
that doesn’t mean it won’t happen a few years down the line.
Because after all, Beijing’s overarching goal with this proposed 10-nation agreement
is to gradually establish a foothold in the Pacific.
And military bases—even if they’re called something else—they would sure help.
It’s unsurprising that the agreements also require these small countries to abide by
China’s version of the one-China principle, including “non-interference of internal
affairs in international relations”.
That’s code for, when the Chinese regime invades Taiwan, the Pacific nations agree
to stand down.
And because of the vague way it’s written, you can imagine that if a Pacific nation,
for example, helped resupply US troops defending Taiwan, that would be called “interference”.
If they let China build a local military base, though, that’s definitely not interference.
It’s for maintaining peace.
So for any country thinking of signing this agreement with Beijing: DON’T DO IT!
And it’s not just me saying that.
The president of the Federated States of Micronesia is saying it too.
President David Panuelo sent this letter to his fellow island leaders, warning them not
to sign it.
He calls the Common Development Agreement “a smokescreen for a larger agenda” which
“threatens to bring a new Cold War era at best, and a World War at worst”.
He says the Chinese Communist Party’s agreements are an attempt to shift the Pacific Island
nations into their orbit, “intrinsically tying the whole of our economies and societies
to them”.
On top of that, he says, “The practical impacts... of Chinese control over our communications
infrastructure, our ocean territory and the resources within them, and our security space,
aside from impacts on our sovereignty, is that it increases the chances of China getting
into conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand, on the day when Beijing
decides to invade Taiwan.”
This is from the president of a country that has a friendly relationship with China and
also a security agreement with the United States.
He’s had to straddle that for years.
He understands what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to do.
And that’s why he’s warning other countries: DON’T SIGN THE AGREEMENTS!
Now I understand that the United States, Australia, and New Zealand have not been the best partners
to a lot of these islands.
Their development needs have been neglected, so they’ve increasingly looked to China
for support.
But if the price of development is cozying up to a regime that puts millions of ethnic
minorities in labor camps... and uses rape as a form of torture...
I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and predict that it’s not going to end well
for small, defenseless island nations.
And as a thank you to all of our amazing fans who support China Uncensored—the 50-Cent
Army—I’m going to answer a question from one of you on Patreon.
John Patrick says: “Please comment on the recent Australian elections.
I am confused about whether the winners are pro China or against China.”
Great question, John.
So Australia has two major political parties: The Labor Party, which is progressive, and
the Liberal Party which is conservative.
If you’re American, think of it like the Labor Party is the Democrats and the Liberal
Party is the Republicans.
It’s not a perfect fit, but you get the idea.
In the last election, the Labor Party won more seats.
But does that mean the Australian government is going to cozy up to China, like they did
when the Labor Party was in charge under former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a decade ago?
Not necessarily.
That’s because the entire political climate has changed.
Here’s new Labor Party Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the big Quad meeting last week.
That’s an alliance specifically aimed at countering China.
Over the past two years, China’s election interference, plus its trade war during Covid,
have made Australians across the political spectrum more wary of Beijing’s influence.
So it’s no surprise he said this to the press:
“It is China that has changed, not Australia.
And Australia should always stand up for our values, and we will in a government that I
lead.”
So while in the past, the Labor Party has been closer to China compared to the Liberal
Party, it’s taking a tougher stance, at least for now.
Thanks for your question.
And a big thank you to everyone who contributes a dollar or more to China Uncensored through
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Once again, I’m Matt Gnaizda.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.