Pacific in play

THE intense Australian focus on Zhao Fugang comes amid rising Western concerns about China’s ambitions in the Pacific islands.

China has in recent years managed to establish formal ties with the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Nauru, convincing them to abandon diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, a US ally that Beijing considers a “renegade province”.

In 2022, China signed a secret security pact with Solomon Islands, a leaked draft of which appeared to allow Beijing to send security forces to the country “protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects”. The announcement of the agreement sparked concern in Washington, DC, as well as the capitals of Australia and New Zealand.

Those Chinese inroads followed earlier gains in Fiji during the authoritarian rule of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who came to power in a 2006 coup and was voted out in late 2022. Under Mr Bainimarama, Fiji and China signed a bilateral policing agreement in early 2011, complete with deliveries of equipment and training.

The pact was “extraordinary in terms of the level of detail,” said Graeme Smith, an expert on China and the Pacific at the Australian National University.

“It’s detailed to the extent there’s even a hotline that you could call in the event of any problem,” he said.

“Like, literally 24/7 in Beijing, there would be someone to pick up the phone and say, ‘Here we are. We’re ready to jump on a plane’.”

That’s exactly what Beijing did in 2017, sending an aircraft full of police officers to Fiji to round up scores of suspects in an online fraud operation and bring them back to China. The operation, in which the suspects were marched onto the aircraft by Chinese police and placed in black hoods, was heavily criticised by Fiji’s opposition. After Mr Bainimarama was voted out of office, the new government quickly suspended the policing agreement.

Chinese media reports and press releases show that, from at least 2014, Mr Zhao promoted himself as an “adviser” to Mr Bainimarama.

Mr Zhao’s exact relationship with Mr Bainimarama’s government is unclear, but both analysts and former government insiders have said that Mr Zhao made efforts to forge personal relationships with the former prime minister and other top officials.

Mr Bainimarama even presided over the opening ceremony for Zhao’s Yue Lai Hotel in 2014. The event is commemorated on a plaque embedded near the hotel’s entrance — which was covered up with a sticker after Mr Bainimarama was voted out of office.

Mr Zhao did not respond to written questions. When approached by a reporter for the Nine News network at his hotel, Mr Zhao said he had simply been acquainted with Mr Bainimarama because the former premier had dined at the hotel restaurant.

“Everyone knows Frank,” said Mr Zhao, referring to the former prime minister by his first name before snapping a photograph of the reporter.

Mr Bainimarama did not respond to a request for comment.