中文
By Daryl Guppy
At the second U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit, U.S. President Joe Biden offered an additional $200 million for new projects and activities. This piffling amount pales into insignificance when compared with the billions in military aid given to Ukraine. The offer reflects the true altitude of the United States when it comes to the interests of the Pacific Islands. The renewed interest is a thin cover masking the strategic and military ambitions of the United States and its allies in the region.
The White House said the summit was designed to "reaffirm the U.S. commitment to our shared regional priorities and deepening our cooperation around them." After decades of neglect, it is difficult to believe that their renewed interest in the region is about "shared priorities" because history confirms it's usually all about Western priorities and convenience, often to the detriment of people in the region.
The use of the Pacific as a nuclear test and dumping ground is a case in point. In 1946, the United States destroyed Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific with nuclear tests. It was the first of 24 tests which scattered radioactive waste through the atmosphere and waters of the Pacific. More than one test was held when winds were known to carry the fallout over occupied villages. The radioactive poisoning of these people became a long-lasting object of study.
In 1956, the British first contaminated several of the Montebello Islands off the West Coast of Australia, coating the indigenous inhabitants on the mainland with a black radioactive dust. Later British tests in the Pacific were concluded without any real attempt at clean-up or de-contamination.
In 1960, the French used Moruroa Atoll to develop their "force de frappe" strategy. Again the radioactive fallout swamped the ocean currents and swirled through the atmosphere of the South Pacific. In 1985, French security agents sunk the Greenpeace protest ship, Rainbow Warrior, in New Zealand's Auckland harbor.
These are the legacy the colonial countries brought to Asia and the South Pacific. This history is what Joe Biden means when he speaks of "our shared regional priorities."
Now the U.S., with the support of Japan, the UK, Australia and France, is determined to bring military colonialism back to the South Pacific. They continue with the farce of consultation, assuring them that times have changed and the U.S. will harbor no ill-intent if they are unable to achieve U.S. strategic objectives.
America stomps through the Pacific offering droplets of aid and building new embassies which will inevitably act as a base for spies and covert activities. America offers agreements supposedly based on "freedom of association" which, in that perverse doublespeak from Washington, means there are penalties if countries associate with groups that the U.S. does not approve of, or undertake action that does not suit the United States.
The United Kingdom's activity in the region brings with it a disdain for the decisions of international bodies like the UN. Both the UK and the U.S. resolutely ignore the 2021 UN decisions on the status of the Chagos islands, where the UK allowed the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia in the 1960s.
French President Emmanuel Macron ensures France's diminished pacific empire to follows the U.S. strategic lead.
These powers have undoubtedly achieved some good in the region but it's difficult to determine if this was the primary purpose of their activity or just a collateral result of commodity exploitation. This legacy of aggression, oppression and bullying in the region is a more recent memory than the memory of the Pacific War.
The foreign countries have been slow to fully recognize that they are now working in a more educated and sophisticated environment. Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare exemplifies this new awareness, as underlined by his absence from the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit. His desire to be "friends to all, enemies to none" resonates with many other regional leaders who are also wary of becoming pawns to be sacrificed for Western military intentions.
Fiji is also concerned with U.S. demands, and Papua New Guinea leaders are wary of restrictive clauses in the proposed defense agreement with Australia.
The Pacific leaders attending the Pacific Island Forum Summit play a delicate game because they know from recent history that the Western powers have no hesitation in acting contrary to the best interests of their people. China's Global Development Initiative provides the counterbalance that supports respectful recognition of the aspirations of the peoples of the South Pacific.
Daryl Guppy, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for mainland Chinese media for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as the "Chart Man." He is a former national board member of the Australia China Business Council.
