China is stepping up its influence in the Pacific by negotiating security agreements with two additional island nations following a pact with the Solomon Islands, according to officials in the United States and allies.
Negotiations between Beijing and Kiribati, a Pacific island nation 3,000 km from Hawaii where the US Indo-Pacific Command is based, are the most advanced, officials said.
“They are negotiating with Kiribati and at least one other Pacific island nation for an agreement that will cover much of the same territory as the Solomon Islands,” said an intelligence officer from a US ally.
The warning that Beijing was trying to further increase its influence in the Pacific came when President Joe Biden began a visit to Asia to reassure US allies of the US commitment to regional security amid China’s pressure for influence.
Negotiations with Kiribati follow a deal signed by Beijing with the Solomon Islands, which some experts say will allow China to build a naval base in the country, northeast of Australia.
According to an expiration of a draft agreement in March, the Solomon Pact could allow China to send police and even military forces to the islands, a development that shocked the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.
An American official said China had been looking at Kiribati for some time. “They have had periodic discussions on this issue, not just for months, but for years,” he said, adding that Beijing was trying to establish “strategic positions” in the Pacific island nations.
There are serious fears that the Kiribati pact will be similar to the one agreed with Solomon, a Western official said.
Michael Fun, Kiribati’s foreign minister, said his government was “discussing a security agreement with any partner”.
But Tessi Eria Lamburn, the leader of the opposition in Kiribati, said she was unaware of the talks, but the country’s rapidly changing relations with China worried locals.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, and Kiribati President Tanetti Maamau shake hands during a signing ceremony in Beijing in January 2020 © Mark Schiefelbein / Pool / Getty Images
“We are next in China’s plan to establish a military presence in strategic places in our region,” she said.
The agreement with Solomon helped turn geopolitical tensions with China into a central issue in Saturday’s election in Australia. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to lead a large delegation to the islands next week.
Another sign that Beijing is stepping up efforts in the region, he struck a deal with Vanuatu on Friday to upgrade Luganville International Airport, a key US military base during World War II.
A State Department official said the United States took concerns about security agreements, including with Kiribati, “very seriously.” He said there were fears that China was also negotiating with Tonga and Vanuatu.
“The Chinese seem to be making a global effort to expand where they can act militarily or quasi-militarily,” the State Department official said. “And that’s a concern.”
Beijing has security agreements with other countries in the region, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea. But diplomats and security officials said the Solomon Pact was much broader and that there could be greater ambitions for Kiribati.
China operated a space tracking station in Kiribati until 2003, when Beijing severed ties with the islands after establishing diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Since Kiribati regained its diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing in 2019, diplomats have been looking for signs that the tracking station may be restarted. Experts say a huge improvement in China’s military capabilities over the past two decades would make China’s air force or naval base relatively close to Hawaii even more significant today.
China is also working with Kiribati to upgrade a summer runway on the archipelago of Canton.
Tess Newton Kane, an expert on the Pacific at Griffith University in Australia, said the Solomon Islands agreement and the strengthening of ties with Kiribati reflected “high energy” in a new phase of China’s commitment.
“This relationship is very new and progressing quite fast. . . “It’s quite different from what we see elsewhere in the region, where relations may be a little more mature,” she said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Additional reports from Nick Fields in Sydney
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