In Kiribati’s capital Tarawa on Friday, Wang signed documents on cooperation in building infrastructure and fighting the effects of climate change, saying “to help developing countries is to help China itself”, according to the Chinese foreign affairs ministry.
He also took a jab at the US and its allies like Australia, which have long maintained influence in the region.
“The US and its accomplices still insist on focusing their energies on deliberately blocking China’s development,” Wang said, according to a foreign ministry news release.
Cooperation between China and Kiribati drew attention with reports that Beijing would provide financial aid for a feasibility study on upgrading the airstrip on Kanton Island.
The narrow ribbon of land sits 3,000km away from Hawaii, home to the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command – a relatively short distance in the vast, sparsely inhabited region.
The government of Kiribati last May acknowledged the project but called a Reuters report on it misleading, saying the runway is for “civilian use only” and meant “to support commercial air travel between the capital Tarawa” and other islands.
Kanton is thought to have only several dozen residents, and the economic benefits of upgrading the airstrip are unclear.
Kiribati, along with the Solomon Islands, broke with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 2019.
The Financial Times reported this month that negotiations were underway between China and Kiribati, along with at least one more Pacific island nation, on security pacts similar to the one agreed by the Solomon Islands and China in April.
Some observers said it was possible that such a deal could allow Beijing to send military forces to Kiribati.
During WWII, Japan targeted the Southern Pacific in hopes of cutting off Australia from the US. Some of the war’s bloodiest fighting to place on Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands, and on the Gilbert Islands, which include Tarawa and most of the rest of Kiribati.
The runway on Kanton Island was built by the US military at the time. Since the war, Australia and the US have consistently maintained influence in the region.
On a 2012 visit to the US, then-Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping said the Pacific Ocean was big enough to accommodate both the US and China, hinting Beijing would favour dividing the region into Chinese and American spheres of influence.
Since then, China has been working to win friends there.
Beijing recently put forward draft outcome documents for a meeting with 10 Pacific island nations, including the Federated States of Micronesia. The draft agreement seeks greater security cooperation, among other bilateral efforts.
Some observers said China’s ultimate goal is to undermine Micronesia’s Compact of Free Association with the US.
Under the compact, Micronesia allows the US – but no other country – to station forces there in exchange for American economic assistance. The agreement is up for renewal in 2023, and negotiations have yet to conclude.
The distance between Guam, an important way station for US nuclear submarines and strategic bombers, and the Micronesian island of Yap is just over 700km. For China, having a military base on Yap could help defend the mainland by denying US forces closer access.
Masafumi Iida, an expert on China’s maritime strategy at National Institute for Defense Studies in Japan, said Beijing’s overtures in the region are “part of a series of moves to achieve the strategic objective of constraining US military actions”.
Such moves have not been lost on the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, in which the US, Japan, Australia and India have come together around a shared concern over China’s rising blue-water presence in the Indo-Pacific.
When Quad leaders met in Tokyo on Tuesday, new Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese was among them.
“We know that China is seeking to exert more influence in the Pacific,” Albanese said.
Albanese’s Labor Party government has said it aims to increase development assistance to Pacific island nations. Visiting Fiji on Friday, foreign minister Penny Wong said “one of the areas in which the new government is determined to make a difference is on climate”.
Just before Wang’s visit to the Solomons, New Zealand’s government said Wednesday that it would extend its troop deployment there for one year until the end of May 2023.
In a letter to regional leaders dated May 20, Micronesian President David Panuelo expressed concern over China’s Pacific island cooperation proposal, saying it “threatens to bring a new cold war era at best, and a world war at worst”.
There are signs of stronger US engagement with the region. Fiji has joined US President Joe Biden’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
Japan has also tried to deepen ties with the region. Foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi visited Fiji and Palau in early May. Every three years, together with Australia and New Zealand, Tokyo holds the Pacific Ocean Island Meeting with regional leaders.
For Japan, Pacific island countries are located on the sea lanes to Australia, besides being rich in marine resources. They are also a major voting bloc in the United Nations.