There is a surprise plan in the pocket of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is starting a visit to the Pacific on May 26 (Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor -Leste).. And he arrives with his hands full: to thwart the American presence in the region, China offers the countries of this area a vast free trade and security agreement which is already causing concern in the West.
Officially, this is a common vision of development. This is the catch-all title given by China to this unprecedented plan, which aims to attract more than a dozen Pacific countries. In reality, this pact covers close collaboration in areas as sensitive as security, cyber-surveillance, customs procedures or communication infrastructures.
Access to the internal market
In exchange for access to its domestic market, with more than a billion consumers, China would take control of the training of police forces, computer security, mapping of marine areas. And would be in pole position to impose the digital technologies of Huawei, the controversial Chinese telecommunications giant, from the undersea internet cable to the delivery of turnkey 5G networks.
To bind irretrievably?
On paper, the offer is attractive. But on reading the draft, Micronesia, a small archipelago in the Pacific, is already alerting its regional partners: China, assures the Micronesian president, is seeking to bind us to it irremediably and to encroach on our sovereignty. Be careful, he says, not to to throw through us a new war of influence between the West and the Chinese government.
►Also read : Solomon Islands: tensions with Canberra and Washington after the security agreement with Beijing