Post
by Chaba » Fri Dec 07, 2018 7:52 am
4liters wrote:Chaba wrote:Horrible!
In a similar vein, I'd be concerned about China's multi million dollar investments in Fiji and Vanuatu. These are Australasia's pacific neighbors, and "nirvana" for a large group of recreational fishers. Even those of us who cannot get there for that dream trip understand that these places are pristine in habitat and friendly in population. This will undoubtedly change soon.
Claims are made that these investments, which happen to be primarily marine based, will support the growth of tourism and are intended to bring the larger cruise ships in and thus support the local economy. To an extent, I guess that this is true.
New wharves, moorings, and "passenger terminals" are being built as I bang on about this. Incidentally, the new docking facility at Luganville in Vanuatu can comfortably accommodate an aircraft carrier. Think about that for a moment.
A very simple question has to be asked...... Why would China spend $114mil on a new wharf in Vanuatu unless there was something that stood to be gained? There are three things in my mind that could warrant these investments:
1) Altruistic donation (they want to give),
2) Military strategy (they want to fight),
3) Strategic access to fishing grounds (they want to take)
Only point 1 above is good in my opinion.
My comments above are about China as a country - a financially tuned entity, and not about individuals.
This situation highlighted perfectly the idiocy of the populist cuts to foreign aid made by our current government until recently. It is harder to condense into a memorable soundbite compared to the populist messages but foreign aid isn't just giving soft toys to starving Ethiopian kids and actually has important strategic elements to it. The Pacific nations were among those who lost out when aid was slashed and that vacuum gave China the perfect opening to expand it's influence in the region. Now we potentially have a Chinese naval base on our doorstep.
Too right.
