Pacific delegation heads to China for talks
Updated
Australia is leading a delegation of Pacific nations to Beijing to discuss China's role in the region.The Pacific has been seen as part of the wider battleground between China and Taiwan as the two strive for diplomatic and economic influence.
Presenter; Michael Cavanagh
Speakers: Dr Paul Darcy, Australian National University's School of Pacific and Asian Studies; Duncan Kerr, Australia's Paliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs
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CAVANAGH: The diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Taipei has led to both countries using their economic muscle in various parts of the globe where there are nations requiring assistance -- and the Pacific has been no exception.
Just how much China gives in economic assistance to the Forum countries is not released by Beijing.
Estimates have it as between one hundred and one hundred and fifty US million dollars and it's growing rapidly -- although it is less than Australia and the US's contribution.
This growing influence has helped prompt the trip by a number of Forum countries to China to discuss with authorities its role in the Pacific.
Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs Duncan Kerr says the trip is two fold -- to encourage China's economic interest in the region and also to look at how China can be more closely involved with the other countries in the area who are involved in development assistance.
KERR: This is relatively new for China because I think still it doesn't see itself formally an aid provider. It sees itself as a country that is itself developing economically but of course it is involved in projects to assist countries that it has engagements with and we would like to see that assistance work in a way which harmonises with the other providers of assistance in the Pacific.
CAVANAGH: Criticism of China's assistance in the region includes that it has concentrated on large infrastructure projects which once completed have been handed over leaving the local communities the costly problem of maintaining completed projects -- often leading to them soon becoming a white elephant.
Dr Paul Darcy from the Australian National University's School of Pacific and Asian Studies says incidents not just in the Pacific but elsewhere involving Chinese assistance and a number of other factors is likely to see Beijing work more closely with other aid givers...
DARCY: Their aid and development organisations are grossly understaffed. I think we're going to see through sheer necessity a slow change of mind and the first thing is to get more staff in there and more interaction with existing aid donors in the rest of the world.
CAVANAGH: If China was to become a part of the development aid community, that leans itself to greater transparency and greater governance. The smaller Pacific nations haven't been renowned for that, particularly, that's one of the reasons that both Taiwan and China aid has been attractive. They haven't had to justify it. How do you think some of the smaller countries will take to this move to include China in a more open transparent development role?
DARCY: If we want people to behave in a responsible way, treat them responsibly to start with. There's no reason. It's not a predetermined that the Pacific will be corrupt, that Chinese aid will be non-transparent, and that Australia's will be transparent. To me it's about a defectiveness rather than pre-labelling people. You are almost setting up a project to fail if you do that. We have to realise that.
CAVANAGH: There is no doubt that some of China's actions and Taiwan's have been unsettling. You mentioned the riot. China itself has been unsettled by that and is looking at its role in the Pacific?
DARCY: I think it is, again as part of a wider agenda. There's been problems in the Ogaden, problems in Sudan, problems in Pakistan, all for development projects and I think the Chinese are very aware of this, and particularly as I said, what matters to them as the effectiveness of their development is their perception that they have in the world. China wants to be a world player and seen as a responsible world player. And the simple fact of the last two or three years, particularly since the riots in Nukulofa and Honiara, the Chinese have in a very subtle way been more willing to talk about cooperation with Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific.
