Скачать или смотреть Think tank reports that China's decreasing assistance to Pacific islands is going to allies

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Think tank reports that China's decreasing assistance to Pacific islands is going to allies more and more.

An independent Australian think tank said on Tuesday that China's decreasing aid to the South Pacific is increasingly directed toward its political supporters in the region as demand for Chinese credit decreases and rivalry for influence with the United States intensifies.

In its annual review of help to the region, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute stated that better loan arrangements being given by U.S. allies, especially Australia, are causing China's overall economic influence among the 14 aid-dependent island states in the region to decline.

Due to China's signing of a security agreement with the Solomon Islands last year, which increased the possibility of a Chinese naval footprint in the region, attention has been drawn to the strategic rivalry in the South Pacific.

According to the article, since the Solomon Islands and nearby Kiribati shifted their diplomatic allegiance from self-ruled Taiwan to Beijing in 2019, China has expanded aid to both countries.

Through more diplomatic and commercial interaction, the US has attempted to offset Chinese dominance in the area. Leaders from Pacific Islands were recently hosted by President Joe Biden at the White House.

The most recent year for which the international policy think tank has complete data, 2021, saw China provide $241 million in total aid to the island republics. Since China's $384 million peak in 2016, the year saw a continuation of the decline in Chinese grants and loans to some of the most aid-dependent nations in the globe, according to the institute.

Based on new information, the most recent report updates earlier Chinese yearly contributions while keeping the declining trend.According to the paper, "it reflects a strategic shift to reduce risk, cement political ties, and enhance capital returns."

Since 2008, China has provided $3.9 billion in aid to the Pacific, mostly to nations that have formal diplomatic links to Beijing, such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

According to the research, "China can play an outsized role in these countries that belies its moderate role share of total regional financing" because it exclusively gives ODF (official development funds) to a group of Pacific countries.
According to the research, China is the third-largest donor of aid to the Pacific, trailing only Australia (which contributes 40%) and the Asian Development Bank. China has contributed 9% of the total since 2008.

The fundamental reason for the reduction in Chinese help has been the Pacific governments' lack of interest in Chinese loans, which have left Tonga and other Pacific nations deeply in debt. The United States has issued a warning, claiming that Chinese money poses a threat to the sovereignty of poor nations by acting as a debt trap.

Riley Duke, a researcher at Lowy, stated, "What is very clear is that the interest from Pacific governments in Chinese loans, specifically infrastructure loans, has declined." "It's just that we're outmatched."

Twenty years ago, China accounted for one-third of infrastructure investment in the Pacific region; however, that percentage has now dropped to half, according to the report.