Via The Australian:
Plans to build a multi-use port on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island have stoked fears that China could be set to gain a foothold on the strategically vital island, as Beijing is potentially in line to help fund the facility.
Australian government officials, defence experts and Manus Island residents are concerned at the high level of Chinese foreign investment on Manus Island, a site long considered pivotal by defence strategists because of its sweeping command of the Pacific Ocean and the maritime approaches to Asia.
The Australian can reveal that a plan by the PNG government to refurbish four ports across the country — Wewak, Kikori, Vanimo and Manus Island — has alarmed locals who fear Beijing is courting the Pacific island nations, particularly PNG, for strategic advantage.
But, but, but, surely they’d prefer our political castaways?
A Chinese PNG is an absolute Australian strategic nightmare. Such an outcome would blockade Australia completely. It would be the end of our sovereignty.
Yet that is the way it is going. Previously from The Guardian:
China’s aid spending in Papua New Guinea – with its focus on infrastructure and “few-strings-attached” concessional loans – risks eroding Australia’s influence in the country, with Australian aid sometimes viewed as paternalistic and unwieldy.
A Deakin University submission to a parliamentary inquiry, based on interviews with Papua New Guinean business, political, academic and community leaders argues Australia risks being diminished by rising Chinese spending.
PNG is Australia’s closest neighbour, and for reasons of proximity and a shared history – PNG was under Australian administration until 1975 – Australia has been its most significant international partner.
And whatever the people of PNG think may not matter. Via The Australian earlier this year:
The Papua New Guinea government’s plan to ban Facebook — the platform favoured by vitriolic domestic critics — for a period is only the latest in a succession of threats to clamp down on internet use.
But this time, the nation may be in a better position to take action since it is forging closer links with its Chinese counterpart — the world’s leading internet censor.
…Discussion has already begun towards the prospect of negotiating a free-trade agreement between PNG and China, reinforcing a relationship that is highlighted by a $4.6 billion concessional credit line already made available by China for PNG.
…The internet was launched in PNG on March 12, 1997. By 2014, when users were last surveyed, only about 10 per cent of the country’s eight million people had access, compared with the half who now have access to mobile phones as a result of the drive by Irish company Digicel.
This online community in PNG, however, includes a disproportionate number of people who consistently post material highly critical — sometimes defamatory — of leading figures in the government, including Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
Next up is PNG democracy fading into a Beijing-anointed strongman leader with a Chinese military base to hang over Australia’s head.
Don’t worry. Canberra will protect us.
