News that China plans to launch a military attack on Australia from its nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, would have alarmed local viewers of Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program last week. While this author hopes the speculation of World War III put forward in their story, Too Close To Home, proves wrong, it’s worth weighing up what’s changed about China’s diplomatic presence in the region.
The last time a Chinese foreign minister conducted a grand tour of the Pacific before this year was 2006. Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent eight-country tour of the region was labelled ‘unprecedented’ by nearly all media outlets, but his predecessor Li Zhaoxing visited all eight countries in the Pacific that recognised China at the time. These include three that Wang overlooked — the Federated States of Micronesia, the Cook Islands and Niue, where Li asked the government to “refrain from attending conferences or anything to do with the Taiwanese government”.
The constant in China’s diplomacy is The One-China Principle — the desire to reduce Taiwan’s global diplomatic space. As China’s presence grows, Taiwan’s representatives were shown the door in the Solomon Islands and Kiribati in 2019, just in time for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.
