Fiji benefits from enhancing its existing partnership with China

By Hamzah Rifaat Hussain

When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Beijing on August 20, emphasis was placed on the promotion of a China-Fiji community with a shared future. This is an important consideration as existing cooperation, which has a trickle-down effect on the local population, is beneficial for Fiji in the Global South.

There are a number of areas and possibilities which the Pacific island country can draw inspiration from and implement for more prosperity and resilience. This includes poverty reduction initiatives, plans for green development and improving the standard of living for rural Fijians.

According to the World Bank, Fiji is an upper middle-income economy which fares better than some of its Pacific counterparts such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. Yet at the same time, it has struggled with extreme levels of rural poverty and inequality. This provides an opportunity for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to play a key role through rural empowerment and the development of a requisite infrastructure.

Note that while Fiji has long suffered from a pronounced rural-urban divide, the China assisted development project in the Fijian island of Vanua Levu entails road upgrades, improvement in access to hospitals for the poor and the provision of adequate civic facilities. These BRI projects are aimed at reducing income inequalities, generating employment, incomes and livelihoods for rural Fijians, who constitute almost half of the population.

Then comes the practice of drawing from historical lessons of poverty alleviation. While each country has unique economic realities, dynamics and challenges, Fiji has stated that it has been inspired by China's historical poverty alleviation strategies to enhance domestic community livelihoods.

As a result, inspiration can be drawn from how China put an end to a feudal land system which endured for 2,000 years and initiated land reforms for equitable growth. This also included socialist transformation in agriculture, capitalist industries and commerce which allowed a "collective economy" to take hold. Such measures were designed to improve farmland irrigation, develop rural education systems and ensure water conservation – all of which apply to Fiji.

The country has long had problems with property rights, with five sixths of its land owned by indigenous Fijians and which can only be leased but not purchased. As a result, working towards land reform through incentivization of its rural population for a more equitable economic order could benefit Fiji immensely. 

Fiji can also draw on previous, personalized experiences in contemporary China which vindicate the long-held position that Chinese policies and strategies on poverty alleviation and rural development are people-centered and based on reality.

A Fijian delegation, for example, visited the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Yunnan in August 2024, where conclusions were drawn on how development in China is localized and indigenized while ethnic harmony in these provinces has been preserved while coinciding with the development of rural villages. Such experiences act as important takeaways for the Fijian government with possibilities looming high, such as the implementation of a pilot project called the poverty reduction initiative, which is aimed at indigenous Fijians in the Rewa province.

Fiji is also a country rich in natural resources, with a large agricultural sector in the absence of enabling infrastructure and technology. It is important to note that the BRI is dedicated to agricultural development of the Global South and developing countries in the Pacific.

Once again, the above-mentioned China assisted development project for Fiji carries immense relevance as it is dedicated to expanding cooperation in areas such as infrastructure construction and development of areas such as agriculture and fisheries, which remain critical to the Fijian economy.

Furthermore, the swift implementation of 369 practical projects which were inked at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2023 involves leveraging "Juncao technology (techniques that utilize Juncao, a grass-like plant, for various purposes)." There is proof that Juncao boosts the capacity of smallholder farmers to achieve sustainable agriculture as a patented Chinese project which is simple to operate and is also profitable.

Juncao has aided Fijian farmers by acting as a substrate for cultivating edible and medicinal fungi and filling the vacuum for feed shortages during the dry season that builds agricultural resilience.

Fiji is also vulnerable to climate change due to its location. In light of this, China's facilitation of Fiji's Green Growth Framework of ecologically resilient societies allows the island to capitalize on its agricultural potential without compromising on environmental conditions. In the Pacific, the presence of the China-Pacific island Countries Climate Change Cooperation Center has implemented small scale climate aid projects for Pacific island countries. There is much to gain for Fiji through its strengthened, sustained cooperation with China.

Hamzah Rifaat Hussain, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a host for ThinkTech Hawaii.