China is bolstering its geopolitical influence in the Pacific by “branding” Asian Development Bank projects – funded in significant part by Australian taxpayer dollars – as Chinese projects, the Australian government says.
On the island of Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea to Australia’s north, the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation has begun work to strengthen the runway at Kieta-Aropa, on the outskirts of the largest city.
