Who is dragging the Pacific Islands into ‘unbridled strategic rivalry’?

Global Times

Less than a week before the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, a think tank is already intensifying its rhetoric about the strategic rivalry between the West and China in the Pacific region.

The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting will be hosted by Tonga from August 26 to 30.

The Lowy Institute, an Australia-based think tank, has released a report titled “The Great Game in the Pacific Islands,” which highlights that the Pacific Islands region is facing challenges due to “unbridled strategic rivalry.”

The report suggests that “Australia, the US, and New Zealand as political and development partners are being directly challenged by China.” This narrative appears rather “timely” and raises questions about whether Western countries’ “intense interest” in Pacific Islands affairs is merely a strategic ploy.

The report is riddled with bias, presenting itself as an objective analysis of the geopolitical impacts facing Pacific Islands Countries amid great power competition. The third sentence of the report, “China’s outreach and activities in the region appear indefatigable,” positions China as an “aggressor.” As the report concludes, “traditional partners such as Australia and the US worry that the regional balance of power is changing and their influence is waning.” Consequently, they feel compelled to counter China. But this concern is fundamentally based on a Western-made false premise.

The report reflects the West’s usual approach of ignoring China’s real contributions to the Pacific Islands Countries while exaggerating its own “contributions,” which strains the relationship between the region and China.

Instead of portraying China as an “aggressor,” it would be more productive to consider whether Western countries’ so-called cooperation in the region is as altruistic as they claim. The “China threat” narrative is merely a cover for Western interests and strategic calculations in the region. By exaggerating the threat from China, the West is forcing the Pacific Islands into a binary choice, which inevitably puts these countries in a more precarious position.

Pacific Islands Countries are trapped by a complex dilemma, facing not only the challenge of economic development but also external political pressures. For these countries, the real challenge has never been the “China threat,” but rather achieving sustainable development under the shadow of the global competition heavily amplified by the West.

“China is always pleased to see any development that benefits the economies and livelihoods of Pacific Island Countries. By contrast, the US, under its ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy,’ views the region as a crucial strategic point and seeks to turn it into a base for containing China,” said Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University.

The more the West smears China, the more it highlights how China’s cooperation in the region is widely welcomed. China attracts Global South countries through its strength and actions, while the West distorts this as coercion or manipulation.

The Western countries’ history of coercion and manipulation has limited their perspective; no wonder they cannot appreciate the appeal of China’s commitment to peaceful development.