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Jim Watson / Pool via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with gifts from Cook Islands' Prime Minister Henry Puna during a sustainable development and conservation event in Rarotonga on Friday.
CANBERRA, Australia -- Small South Pacific island nations are cashing in on new aid rivalry between China and the United States as both powers vie to boost their influence in a vast region of mostly micro-nations.
The recent visit to the tiny Cook Islands by United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted the growing significance of the region as the United States continues its "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific, analysts said.
The Clinton visit also underlined a growing Chinese influence as it steps up its aid programs to enhance its standing among the smaller nations.
"It is very significant. It just confirms that the Pacific is becoming of greater importance, not less," Stephen Howes, professor of development policy at the Australian National University, told Reuters.
'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific
China's aid program is difficult to measure, although a report by the Lowy Institute think tank in 2011 found China's aid was worth around $200 million a year, with a heavy reliance on soft loans -- a loan with a below-market interest rate -- to finance public works.
In recent years, China's aid and soft loans have helped build sports stadiums in Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands, a swimming complex in Samoa, a new port in Tonga, as well as extensions to the Royal Palace in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.
China has also funded a new police station and court buildings in the Cook Islands capital Raratonga, and boosted aid to Fiji as western nations shunned its military government after the 2006 military coup.
'Cooperation, not competition'
During her visit to the Cook Islands, Clinton announced an extra $32 million in U.S. aid programs for the Pacific, ensuring the U.S. maintains its role as the second-largest aid donor to the region behind Australia.
Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas
Clinton also said the United States could work with China in the Pacific, and played down any new China-U.S. rivalry.
The United States spends about $300 million a year on Pacific nations, including round $100 million a year on military assistance, compared to around $1.2 billion a year from Australia.
Marty Melville / AFP - Getty Images
People commute past a sign advertising a night market in Avarua on the Island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on Thursday as Pacific Islands Forum leaders gathered to discuss issues facing the region.
China says it is merely seeking to help the poor and remote nations in the region develop.
"We are willing to make a contribution, along with all other parties, to help with sustainable development in the South Pacific. We are looking for cooperation, not competition," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
In the past, China's aid flows into the Pacific have been designed to head off potential spending from Taiwan and to try to prevent tiny nations giving official recognition to Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province to be united with the mainland eventually, and by force if necessary.
For more coverage on China, visit NBC's Behind The Wall
But in the past three years, China and Taiwan have agreed to stop trying to poach Pacific nations to their side.
"At the moment, it is more to do with the United States than it is with Taiwan," Lowy Institute South Pacific analyst Annemaree O'Keeffe told Reuters.
She said China's aid programs had undergone significant changes as it recognised deeper problems with its traditional monument projects, where China might construct a major building but then leave a country struggling to maintain it.
"It can work against them. You can have a wonderful sports stadium, but if it starts to fall down, you'll remember that the Chinese built it," O'Keeffe said.
She said China had begun to work more closely with other countries and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on the effectiveness of its aid programs.
China seeking positive image?
That was evident at the Pacific Islands Forum in Raratonga, where China and New Zealand announced a joint aid program to improve water supplies in the Cook Islands. New Zealand will provide $12 million and China will provide a $26 million loan.
As Clinton preps for Asia-Pacific tour, is North Korea capable of reform?
The ANU's Howes said China's growing aid influence in the Pacific was simply a reflection of its rising global influence and as more countries, including Indonesia and Brazil, start to spend more on aid.
"It is a global phenomenon of China reaching out," he said. "More broadly, it is China asserting itself as a global power and expanding its aid and investment from state-owned companies."
He said China was keen to project a positive image, which is why China's aid focused on high-profile projects, although China could do more to ensure its aid programs were transparent.
The downside, however, is that countries might struggle to repay China's soft loans, leaving them worse off in the long run, he said.
Australia, a close U.S. ally which counts China as its top trading partner, has welcomed China's interest in the Pacific, and said China's aid program was no cause for concern.
"I don't think Chinese influence in the South Pacific is anything to alarm us," Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told reporters in Perth in last week.
"The fact is, China's rise to being a great power -- China's economic growth -- will see that it develops relations around the world more vigorously than it ever has in the past and we Australians have just got to get used to it.
"The Chinese will learn that a heavy-handed aid program doesn't get them the kudos that a better targeted more professional aid program does."
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Leave a Comment:
Clinton say's she is trying to work with the Chinese?
The current policy in the US towards China is to build the countries surrounding China for military support.
The current thinking by Chinese generals is to confront the US in the yellow sea even if that means WWIII.
So the US with Obama and Clinton are trying to outspend China lol perhaps they can bum money from China to do this.
It is a very strange situation where the current US government is trying to send jobs and military support around China and saying their trying to work with China.
Then the question is to ask why do we trade with China while building there economy and at the same time tell us here in the US they will bring jobs back home.
Apple is a US company with 750,000 workers in China making billions the Apple products are made by FOXCONN this includes engineering, software designed.
yup every time ya buy something form apple you are supporting the china .
Hey when the Sh*& hits the fan you can sit on your Apple and kiss your A$$ goodbye. LOL
nope i just report
16 trillion and climbing.
Why is the White House giving welfare checks to these people. Why is Congress handing out our hard earned tax money to people who will in the end turn on us and next year burn our flag and kill Americans?
What does it take for our leaders to understand that we can not and have NEVER been able to buy loyalty. These welfare payments in the guise of "aid" have got to stop.
That is one bleeding hole in the American tax payers pocket that should have been stopped years ago.
When is Congress going to get some real balls and put the AMERICAN TAXPAYER who pays their salary first and the rest of the world second.
We have millions and millions of people and problems in this country that all that money could be helping. Instead our tax dollars are wasted on people who end the end would kill us all if given half a chance.
Well Steven, I'd say once you and all the rest get off your butts and do something about government, your wish list might start to look rosey. Congress might be a great place to start, I reckon...
It is all about the oil & gas reserves under the south China sea and pacific ocean. Each country is jockeying for a better position and leverage in the area. This is just the latest way to take over or control another nations government. Put them in debt so far they can never get out. You now own the country. Same game the world bank and IMF are playing in Europe. This is not a new idea or tactic by any means. We here in the U.S. have been using this approach for a good many years. Only difference is that we put a military base in their country. Never know they might need our help someday ( they would not need it if we weren't occupying their country.
bob
You mean like the debt we owe the Chinese?
"During her visit to the Cook Islands, Clinton announced an extra $32 million in U.S. aid programs for the Pacific, ensuring the U.S. maintains its role as the second-largest aid donor to the region behind Australia".
It takes money to make money but the way I see it, if a person or group of persons go together to buy a small island somwhere, you could get all the free money and aid you need. It's as simple as falling off a log.
It's no wonder most of the people you see in photos of these islands that are in charge, are usually smiling...all the way to the bank! What a racket! Well, it's for humanitarian reasons. Bullf***ing S**T!
barney
Take a good look at how much money we sent to Micronesia and have been since WW11. Most of those people just fish and enjoy life, uncle Sam picks up the tab.
That's the way the U.S. operates. All American Indians did before the settlers arrived was hunt, fish, and make little Indians. We're still picking up that tab.
denver bill 2
The American Indians got a raw deal as far as I am concerned. As for Micronesia . We took them from Japan in WW11. We still maintain a large military force there . How many A-Bombs did we test there over the years ????? It is a money pit, but we need to stay there as it helps to keep China in check.
Who took them from Germany in 1914, who bought them from Spain in 1899.
23
The Democrats want to put the countries on welfare and the Republicans want to go to war with them
As uninvited "guests" you are more than welcome to leave any time. By the blood of our Ancestors, if we could go back to just hunting, fishing, and making little Indians, you could have every paper dollar that is so precious to you.
Lots to think about.
Cosmetic Dentist Chicago
The Americans pushed the Soviets into insolvency by making them spend on a comparative level with the US. It drove the Soviets into a second tier power position. Unfortunately the state of the American economy will not let us do the same to the People's Republic of China. Influence peddling isn't a bad strategy if you have the money to spend and the money actually buys you something. If the American theme is to pull back from it's stationing of forces in Japan, Okinawa and Korea and move it's bases to Guam, Hawaii, and Australia then buying some friends in the Mid-Pacific isn't such a bad idea. Unfortunately, the Islanders made lousy partners, they are fickle in their alliances and sympathies. The good news is the Chinese are not ready for true "blue water" operations, but when the PRC begins friendly visits to Tonga, Fuji and the Marshall Islands by combined fleets of surface ships and submarines, you can bet big beads of sweat will break out on the foreheads of CINC PAC and Australia.
That's a pretty good summary, but hopefully China has our allies on edge enough that they won't make us "pull back." I think we can count on being in Korea, Singapore and, possibly in the future, the Philippines, for the forseeable future. Japan is more fickle - the current regime there likes us but the last one didn't, and they change leaders every six months or so.. the next one might very well be back to trying to throw us out of Okinawa again. In any event, even without Japan, that gives us a nice deep water ring around China, but we should have this conversation with the Philippines (they built on Subic already - which got BRACed, but I assume we can find another suitable site somewhere). In the second island chain, Guam will continue to play a critical role, but might have minimal strategic value. The Chinese may be giving a lot of foreign aid to Nauru and Vanuatu, but those territories have little strategic value since the Chinese have no intention of repeating Japan's suicidal attack on American soil. Their strategy is strictly about access denial.. and it's a brutal one at that.. but that's very different from attacking San Diego or the Aleutians.
The bigger issue here is littoral vs blue water. China arguable has a stronger littoral fleet than we do. We dominate in the deep blue sea, obviously.The problem is that China's Access Denial Strategy for littoral seas (all it needs to assault Taiwan, for example), is very well developed. We don't even really have a tactical answer to their Houbei and 056 class Littoral Combat Ships.. we have, what, 4 advanced stealth LCSs in service to their 400 and ours cost 40 times more per ship, with only a third more tactical capacity? This means we won't be able to get a carrier group into littoral seas at all, without being swarmed by fleets of carrier-killers, even without their much vaunted but probably overratd anti-ship ballistic missiles.
They are only there to eventually take what thewy want. Or introduce their money system for future slavery.
Thats right mate. They are there to eventually take back what previously belonged to them, which we illegally have no right to give to US allies. Or to introduce their money system for future trading without being tied to the current slavery to the US$ currency monopoly.
There is room for both US and China to coexist peacefully.
US needs not feel threathened by the peaceful rise of China. Current US policy to pivot back at Asian region and surround China with hostile military bases is not construed as friendly mesures from China's perspective.
She's there to collect black pearls?!