I figure this story deserves it's own thread.
Wang Yi is visiting seven of the countries he hopes will endorse the “Common Development Vision” — the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
Other 3 being Cook Islands, Niue and the Federated States of Micronesia. If you need to look at the map, you will see that this is a far bigger deal than Solomon Islands.
Funny story. Back in 2006 when I just got out of college, one of my best friends worked at a senior role in the Vanuatu embassy in Beijing. We drove around Beijing in the embassy car with complete lack of respect for traffic laws. It was awesome. Anyhow, even back then, you can see the amount of effort that China was starting to put in order to cultivate relationship with these countries. China was putting effort into a lot of these really small places that America just doesn't have the time or place for. Australia just assumed them to be its own backyard.
Anyhow, the most strategically relevant one here is Kiribati. This puts them under 3000 km off Pearl Harbor.
Samoa is a little over 4000 km away from Pearl Harbor
Fiji is about 5000 km away from Pearl Harbor.
I always found the entire Australia freak out over Solomon Island situation amusing, because China really doesn't care to threaten Australia. The end goal is always to have a way of hitting the Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. Both Kiribati and Samoa would put them in range to do so. In the end, I don't think they will build base in most of these countries. I think Kiribati followed by Samoa are the prizes here. Sorry Australia, you are not that important.
On top of this, Samoa and Kiribati would also be half way to South America. The importance of trade to Brazil, Argentina and Chile will continue to grow over the next few decades as batteries/lithium become ever more important. It's very strategically important place for China to be able to have a base out here.
Wang Yi is visiting seven of the countries he hopes will endorse the “Common Development Vision” — the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
Other 3 being Cook Islands, Niue and the Federated States of Micronesia. If you need to look at the map, you will see that this is a far bigger deal than Solomon Islands.
Funny story. Back in 2006 when I just got out of college, one of my best friends worked at a senior role in the Vanuatu embassy in Beijing. We drove around Beijing in the embassy car with complete lack of respect for traffic laws. It was awesome. Anyhow, even back then, you can see the amount of effort that China was starting to put in order to cultivate relationship with these countries. China was putting effort into a lot of these really small places that America just doesn't have the time or place for. Australia just assumed them to be its own backyard.
Anyhow, the most strategically relevant one here is Kiribati. This puts them under 3000 km off Pearl Harbor.
Samoa is a little over 4000 km away from Pearl Harbor
Fiji is about 5000 km away from Pearl Harbor.
I always found the entire Australia freak out over Solomon Island situation amusing, because China really doesn't care to threaten Australia. The end goal is always to have a way of hitting the Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. Both Kiribati and Samoa would put them in range to do so. In the end, I don't think they will build base in most of these countries. I think Kiribati followed by Samoa are the prizes here. Sorry Australia, you are not that important.
On top of this, Samoa and Kiribati would also be half way to South America. The importance of trade to Brazil, Argentina and Chile will continue to grow over the next few decades as batteries/lithium become ever more important. It's very strategically important place for China to be able to have a base out here.
