Leaked documents have revealed Beijing is proposing a region-wide deal with 10 countries, covering police training, biometrics like fingerprints, new trade arrangements and scholarships.
The New Zealand government is being criticised for letting its relationships with Pacific islands drift, as China tries to boost its influence in the region. In a letter to 21 Pacific leaders, the president of the Federated States of Micronesia David Panuelo said the Common Development Vision threatens "to bring a new Cold War era at best and a World War at worst".
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a press conference in Beijing on 8 November. Photo: REUTERS
Reports of China's latest proposal for the Pacific come just days after the United States formed an economic alliance of a dozen Asia-Pacific nations, aimed at countering Beijing's dominance in the region. China's foreign minister Wang Yi is in the Solomon Islands, where he is expected to sign a security pact.
Global interdisciplinary scholar Steven Ratuva is the director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury.
He says the geopolitical gaming already started, with Australia's new Foreign Minister, Penny Wong already in the Pacific to push back. Professor Ratuva says New Zealand and the US need to do the same.
