S. E. PALE

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords: China, Taiwan, Oceania, expansion, economic dependence

While world powers were wondering how to avoid a worsening global economic recession that began in 2008, the PRC was seizing emerging financial niches all over the world - from Africa to Latin America, not excluding the space between continents - Oceania.

By slowly establishing its dominance on the tiny islands of the Pacific Ocean, which sometimes have more than a modest resource base, China has nevertheless been able to gain benefits even where it would seem that it could not.

CHINESE" TSUNAMI " IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Since the mid-twentieth century, the ubiquitous Chinese have firmly established themselves on almost all the islands of Oceania-from the resource-rich Papua New Guinea (PNG) to the completely unpromising, in terms of material benefits, Kingdom of Tonga. In some places, the Chinese managed to create fully functioning political parties and gain power, and in some places they were expelled, unable to cope with envy of foreign prosperity against the background of their own impenetrable poverty. The poverty of the islanders allowed the Chinese to fully enjoy their profits, including illegal ones, which, of course, is not mentioned in official reports and reports. Only the infamous Wikileaks and a handful of Oceanic journalists provided the huge, island-like figures that kept popping up when assessing the Chinese underground economy.

The most significant Chinese diaspora - about 100 thousand people - settled in PNG. The New Guinean Chinese were engaged in the export of timber and mineral raw materials, as well as banking operations. Back in 1968, the Chinese created the second most important party in PNG and brought its leader Julius Chen to power, who over the next two decades served as Prime Minister three more times.

APG's exports of copper, zinc and nickel to China fueled the giant country's demand for raw materials.

The Chinese continued to develop other island states of Melanesia, rich in forests and minerals-the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji. They then spread throughout Polynesia and Micronesia.

There are no minerals on the atoll islands, and the main sources of income are tourism and foreign subsidies. But even in these" unpromising " places, from the point of view of business, the Chinese were able to ensure a comfortable existence by engaging in financial activities, as well as selling and buying everything that could be sold and bought.

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Chinese had established a network of cafes and shops in 23 states and dependent territories of Oceania.

The exact number of Chinese migrants in Oceania (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand) has not yet been calculated, but it is estimated that it may reach half a million. For Oceania, where there are approximately only 9 million inhabitants (7 million people). of which - in PNG), this is a considerable figure.

Ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese came to power with more or less success in French Polynesia (2006), Kiribati (2003 and 2007), and the Solomon Islands (2006).

By the mid-2000s, Chinese influence had increased not only in the low-budget countries of Oceania, but also in such developed countries of the South Pacific region as Australia and New Zealand. It is interesting that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who actively attracted Chinese investment to the country from 2007 to 2010, speaks the Beijing dialect-Mandarin - perfectly. A daughter of K. Rudda became the wife of an Australian of Chinese descent.

CHINA AND TAIWAN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR OCEANIA

Since the 2000s, China's influence in the region has been hindered by an active rival, Taiwan, which, exactly repeating the policy of the Middle Kingdom, tried to take over the palm in "friendship" with island states - largely for the sake of recognizing their own independence.

One of the main goals of competition between China and Taiwan has been to win over the voices of small island developing States (SIDS) in the UN and other international organizations. In addition, there has always been a geopolitical dimension to the struggle between China and Taiwan, which has been the expansion of economic and political (but not economic) cooperation.

not yet military) presence in the South Pacific islands.

By 2006. Taiwan managed to enlist the support of 6 Oceania countries on the issue of recognizing independence from the PRC. One of them was Tuvalu, where the government building was built with Taiwanese money. The other is Nauru, which has received a new pig farm from Taiwan. In this tiny island state with an area of about 20 square meters. Taiwan has even established its own diplomatic mission, which can be traveled by car in less than an hour.

In the heat of competition throughout the 2000s, China and Taiwan brought all sorts of benefits to the Oceanians, gaining recognition from the world community as performers of a very positive role. Indeed, even during the global financial crisis of 2008-2010, the Chinese and Taiwanese remained true to their principles: they built hospitals and roads where these promises were not fulfilled by traditional regional players - Australia and New Zealand, who were forced for economic reasons to reduce their obligations to their poor neighbors in the region.

In the end, China and Taiwan have managed to put Oceanians firmly on the needle of direct cash transfers. Before the "friendship" with China and Taiwan, island states and dependent territories received funds from Western donors only for certain projects under strictly controlled development programs, or in general "in kind" - equipment, medical care or consumer goods. The direct cash flows that local officials could easily cash out led Oceanians to talk about a "new era of cooperation" with China... or with Taiwan, depending on the course chosen by one or another of the island's governments.

The fact is that the opportunity to cash out donor subsidies is a temptation that cannot be resisted, especially if we are talking about the poorest official apparatuses on the planet. Island states have a tiny, by world standards, population-from 12 thousand people in independent Nauru to 850 thousand in the largest state - Fiji. The Oceanic "giant" with a population of 7 million people is PNG (it should be noted that half of the inhabitants are still illiterate). Consequently, several political parties that replace each other almost every six months after the next vote of no confidence are able to agree not only with each other, but also with their own electorate.

Elections are usually held with money from international donors. For example, in the 2000s, in French Polynesia (better known as Tahiti), the endless change of government that lasted about three years subsided only after France, the official owner of French Polynesia, refused to sponsor the next local presidential election in 2009. Only three candidates shared power: one was a protégé of former French President Jacques Chirac, the second was a long-time fighter for the independence of the Tahitian people, and the third was a representative of the Chinese community, which made up 12% of the population of Tahiti in the 2010s.¹

A similar situation developed in the mid-2000s in Vanuatu, where rapidly changing governments alternated between welcoming Taiwanese and slowing down relations with them, receiving incentive tranches from Taipei and Beijing, respectively.

Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis of 2008-1010 The apparent confusion of seemingly unshakable donors-Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan-has contributed to further destabilization in the South Pacific region.

Taiwan also experienced an economic downturn in 2010, but China's GDP continued to grow steadily. As a result, the Chinese onslaught on Oceania became so intense that the media began to talk about the threat of losing the" Pacific power "- the United States - its unspoken title of "sheriff of the Pacific", which was fixed back in the 1990s. Australia, which was considered a" deputy sheriff " in Oceania, also lost its position after the crisis. Another important regional donor - Japan - "forgot" about the distant islands, busy dealing with the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. A little later, in August of the same year, the UK calculated multimillion-dollar losses from the London riots2. In January 2012, Fitch and Standard & Poor's downgraded France's economic rating from AAA to AA+.

TRADITIONAL LEADERS ARE RETREATING

While the traditional leaders in the UTRs-Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France, and Japan-were calculating the losses from the hardships that befell them in 2008 and 2012, the confrontation over spheres of influence in Oceania between China and Taiwan, which peaked in 2003 and 2008, subsided somewhat. In those years, Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian, a representative of the Democratic Progressive Party, actively advocated for the formalization of the island's separation from the PRC.

Since the election of Ma Ying-jeou, a candidate from the Kuomintang Party, as Taiwan's President in March 2008, the 2008-2012 period coincided with the local economic recession and marked a new stage in Sino - Taiwanese relations aimed at bringing the two sides closer together. According to Russian experts, " ... the Chinese leadership in the process of normalizing relations with Taiwan is guided by a goal from the category of fundamental national interests - the return of the island on the basis of the formula "one state, two systems". The basic strategy is to link the Taiwanese economy to the Chinese one, create a stable economic dependence on the mainland, which, according to Beijing, will sooner or later lead to the desired goal - the return of Taiwan"³. The rapprochement between Taiwan and the PRC did not bode well for the United States, whose presence in the region was becoming increasingly shaky, despite increased attempts to achieve the opposite.

At the same time, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France and Japan either reduced the usual amount of subsidies to the islands of Oceania, or provided them under strictly controlled development programs. China, on the other hand, has adopted the tactic of cash transfers, which the Oceanians were not able to resist.

able to resist. Thus, despite loud statements about the desire to maintain its former importance in Oceania, regional leaders in 2012 largely lost their positions to the PRC.

Of course, the increased power of the PRC in Oceania promised to bring certain dividends to the island countries. As part of the annual economic summits between China and the South Pacific states since the mid-2000s, the "Pacific Ocean Program" was implemented, according to which by 2012 the islanders received a total of $600 million from the Middle Kingdom-significantly more than what such a large regional donor as the United States allocated for the development of Oceanians..

However, the Kingdom of Tonga ended up owing China 32% of its GDP; Samoa and the Cook Islands - in the recent past New Zealand's traditional spheres of influence - 16% of their budget.⁵ It makes no sense to say that these countries are unlikely to go against Beijing's political line in order to please it. It is also unlikely that the islands will ever be able to repay loans of this magnitude to China, even on concessional terms. Time will tell you the answer to the reasonable question of how China will take advantage of this dependence in the future.

It is no secret that the shadow economy is present everywhere, including in large financial structures such as the state or interstate associations. A number of Oceanic countries were no exception and distinguished themselves by the fact that in the 1990s they earned the infamous reputation of offshore centers, becoming the focus of all sorts of fraud and fraud at the international level.

The regional powers-Australia and New Zealand-made a lot of efforts to "whitewash" their charges, and partially succeeded in this by the mid-2000s. But the global financial crisis of 2008 forced them to turn to the financial power of the PRC and weaken the previously strong friendship with the United States and the EU. The narrowing of the flow of sponsorship subsidies to Oceania countries from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France and the United Kingdom played into the hands of China, which immediately began to occupy the vacant niches, seizing financial levers to control the political course of the island states.

The island nation of Vanuatu has finally given its preference to friendship with China. It is not superfluous to mention that in the late 1990s. Vanuatu has earned the title of "the best tax haven in the world" for laundering illegal income, for which this state was included in the" black list " of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Thanks to the efforts of Australia and New Zealand in the early 2000s. Vanuatu was moved to a less severe "grey list".

But it was only in 2010 that Vanuatu entered the "white list" solely through the efforts of Beijing, which decided to justify its financial presence in this offshore center. According to unofficial data, Beijing offered the Vanuatans $30 million for a formal waiver of tax frauds6. In addition, in October 2011, the Government of the Republic of China issued an official statement. Vanuatu joined the WTO (one step ahead of Russia). Nevertheless, the mentality of the islanders remained the same: an anonymous source from the government circles of Vanuatu did not fail to brag to journalists of the China Offshore publication that "... local legal provisions on trade secrets in practice make all agreements on the exchange of tax information meaningless " ⁷.

The political, economic, and legislative realities of the South Pacific Islands provide China with almost limitless opportunities for all sorts of illegal activities. Thus, in 2011, a criminal network was uncovered in Tonga for the sale of "live goods" - girls from Chinese villages, who were offered jobs "in the service sector"in this peripheral monarchical state by world standards. The "consumers" of Chinese "live goods" were most often not local Tongans, or even Chinese, but South Korean businessmen. This criminal network was organized by a Chinese citizen. According to human rights activists from Tonga who released this information,"...behind the screen of Asian restaurants, which have become a common reality not only in our country,but also on almost all the islands of Oceania, much more terrible things are happening. " ⁸

SHADOW ECONOMY CENTER

The most serious scale of underground Chinese business has acquired in Fiji. From all points of view, this is the most significant Oceanic state, where a military dictatorship has been established since 2006, which was condemned by the "progressive" world community and, as usual, excluded Fiji from all key interregional organizations. It was supposed to cause irreparable damage to the Fijian budget and force the country to seek help in restoring democracy to regional leaders-Australia and New Zealand. But Fiji chose a different path: to save the economy (and at the same time the dictatorial regime), the country turned to China, which, as you know, is also considered not quite a democratic state and is condemned from the standpoint of respect for human rights by a number of countries, for example, the United States.

And more recently, Australia and New Zealand, who have repeatedly regretted the rash severance of relations with Fiji, have been concerned about the growing ties between Suva (the capital of Fiji) and Moscow. In February 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited this country9 ⁱⁿ order to find out before the APEC summit in Vladivostok what the small states of Oceania live and need. Naturally, they need a lot of money, which can be offered for the diplomatic recognition of some new states like South Ossetia or Abkhazia. Perhaps Fiji's voice in the UN and other international organizations will be useful in making decisions on Palestine, Syria or Iran.

Apart from the political aspects, Fiji and Russia may have good relations in the field of tourism. In Fiji, the tourism sector is so well developed that Hollywood stars and many powerful people prefer to relax in this country (despite the dictatorship).

this. So, in his own Fijian villa once a year, the former head of the Microsoft megacorporation Bill Gates rests. And the famous American actor Mel Gibson actually bought himself an entire island there.

It was this "paradise" country, which by the will of fate was left out of democracy, that became the object of attention from illegal Chinese businesses. Back at the time of the first coup in 1987, as a result of which Fiji suffered a large-scale financial disaster due to the breakdown of relations with Western donors, it was decided to stimulate the country's economy by attracting Asian investors who could start their own business for $250 thousand and get the local right to permanent residence. As a result, by the mid-2000s, Fiji became a "bridge" for Chinese people to move to North America, the European Union, as well as to Australia and New Zealand using a cheap Fijian passport, which provided simplified entry to these countries. The desire to get the coveted passport has increased the number of fictitious marriages between Chinese and Fijian citizens.

Local government services should have controlled the situation, but on the contrary, they themselves actively participated in the process of buying and selling local passports, as well as issuing visas to other states. For example, in 2004, six Chinese people were detained at Nadi Airport in Fiji, who entered the country using Chinese passports, and the very next day they tried to leave for the United States with Japanese passports. Moreover, according to the Fiji News radio station, two of the hijackers of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks spent six months in the Fiji Islands waiting for an American visa before arriving in the United States. Fijian officials, who are not very concerned about the international situation outside their home island, are ready to help anyone who has the means to do so. It is known, for example, that before the attacks, several Pakistanis with forged passports also tried to get American visas to Fiji.¹⁰

Corruption in Fijian government structures reached a maximum by 2007, and then the country's leadership decided that it was not worth fighting "windmills", and introduced a visa-free regime with China to reduce corruption in government structures. (By the way, visa - free travel arrangements with Russia may become a reality by the end of 2014, while Fiji has only a handful of similar agreements with other countries.) ¹¹

But financial fraud, money laundering, trafficking in "live goods", smuggling of rare animals, etc. could not be compared in scope to drug trafficking, which reached an unprecedented scale for Oceania by the mid-2000s. In 2004, the largest underground methamphetamine laboratory in the southern hemisphere was uncovered in Fiji: the cost of the raw material found was estimated at $540 million. Later, a shipment of heroin weighing 400 kg was also detained in Fiji. The underground network was run by Chinese from Hong Kong ¹².

TODAY-OCEANIA, TOMORROW-THE WHOLE WORLD?

By the 2010s, the power of the PRC extended not only to the economic aspects of Oceanic countries ' life, but also to their political aspirations. China was ready to provide assistance not only to any regimes in the South that were" objectionable " to the West, but also to parties that were not supported by traditional regional players.

Since China needs as many supporters as possible in various international organizations, not excluding the UN, in 2013. Beijing lobbied the UN Special Committee on Decolonization for a positive decision to add French Polynesia to the List of Non-Self-Governing Territories.¹³ Thus, in the event of independence from France, this new state will be more than grateful to China, casting its vote for it wherever Beijing demands.

Interestingly, the representative of Chile to the United Nations stated that "... the local supreme authorities (of French Polynesia) have less authority than any seedy mayor in my own country. " ¹⁴ And in the local top leadership, Beijing already has a "trump card" - Gaston Tong Sang, who has Chinese roots, who for 2000-He has already served as President of French Polynesia five times.¹⁵

In terms of material benefits, China's presence in Oceania has proved much more lucrative for the islanders than maintaining financial relations with advanced democracies that require more honest and transparent business practices. Overall, according to Asian Development Bank reports, the combined economic growth rate of Oceanic economies reached ⁶% in 201216. Undoubtedly, this was largely due to Chinese capital (one can only guess at the amount of income from shadow activities).

But historical experience shows that access to sources of rapid enrichment brings with it the destruction of statehood, the decline of public morals and the disintegration of society. And the example of Oceania clearly confirms this.

The situation will not change until a civil society is formed on the islands, where the thirst for individual profit is replaced by the consciousness of the need to infringe on their own interests for the sake of the interests of other fellow citizens. In Oceanic conditions, this will take more than a decade. All this time, the leadership and business community of the island states will remain on the side of those who pay more.

Traditional regional leaders such as Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States, who have been consolidating their efforts to maintain their positions in the UTRs since 2012, having forgotten about their former competition, will have an uphill battle ahead of the onslaught of the "big yellow brother" - China, which, by the way, Oceanians sympathize with much more than fading in their eyes to the big white brothers. And the way China will use its power in Oceania will show what can be expected for those countries that are destined to fall under the influence of the Middle Kingdom in the 2010s.

¹ French Polynesia // Official Guide 2014, New Zealand -http://across.co.nz/Tahiti.html

² London: debris collected, shock remains / / Russian Air Force Service. 13.08.2011 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/multimedia/2011/ 08/110813_london_riots_lookback.shtml

³ Movement of China and Taiwan towards each other / / Global affairs.ru. 14.02.2011 - globalaffairs.ru/number/Taivan-mezhdu-Kitaem-i-Amerikoi-15108

⁴ Pacific islanders relish their moment on diplomatic stage // The Sydney Morning Herald. 29.08.2012 - http://www.smh.com.au/world/ pacific-islanders-relish-their-moment-on-diplomatic-stage-20120828 - 24yq2.html#ixzz33vnY0pWx

⁵ Enhancing aid cooperation - the Australia-China Development Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding // Development Policy Centre - http://devpolicy.org/enhancing-aid-cooperation-the-australia-china-development-cooperation- memorandum-of-understanding-20130422/

⁶ A jury of one's peers // Chinaoffshore.net. Winter 2010 -chinaoffshore.net/content/jury-ones-peers

⁷ Ibidem.

⁸ Tongan women's group fights human trafficking // Radio Australia. 28.04.2011 - radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/ tongan-womens-group-fights-human-trafficking

⁹ Joint press conference of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Fiji I. Kubuabola following the talks. Nadi, 1.02.2012 / / Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation - mid.ru/foto.nsf/fotomin?OpenView&Start-61

¹⁰ The State of Fiji was involved in passport forgery // Newcanadian.ru. 20.10.2004 - newcanadian.ru/news/article-39.html

¹¹ Fiji introduces a visa-free regime for Russian tourists / / Newsland. 13.07.2013 - http://newsland.com/index/news/tag/4731/

¹² Record raid on drug dealers in Fiji / / VVS. 09.06.2004 -news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/news/newsid_3789000/3789783.stm

¹³ Chinese Allegedly Backing French Polynesia Independence // Radio New Zealand International. 04.04.2013 - archives.pireport.org/ archive/2013/february/02 - 05 - 10.htm

¹⁴ As Session concludes, Special Committee on Decolonization reaffirms inalienable right of French Polynesian people to self-determination // Special Committee on Decolonization, 9th Meeting. 21.06.2013 - un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gacol3258.doc.htm

¹⁵ Chinese Investors have eye on French Polynesia // Radio New Zealand International. 13.10.2013 - archives.pireport.org/archive/2013/ october/10 - 14 - 22.htm

¹⁶ Asian Development Outlook 2013: Asia's Energy Challenge April 2013 // Asian Development Bank - http://www.adb.org/publications/ asian-development-outlook-2013-asias-energy-challenge