Context: China has suffered a big diplomatic humiliation in the Pacific 10 Pacific island nations rebuffed China's push for a wide-ranging regional security pact, amid worries the proposal was designed to pull them into Beijing's orbit.

Key Outcomes

• Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has returned empty-handed in a highly decorated visit to the Pacific Nations.
• The secret deal that was to be brokered got leaked in public media, caused huge embarrassment to the Chinese.

Conspicuous features of the Pact

• China has had offered to radically ramp up its activities in the South Pacific, directly challenging the influence of the US and its allies in the strategically vital region.

The failed deal saw Beijing to

• Train Pacific island police,
• Become involved in cybersecurity,
• Expand political ties,
• Conduct sensitive marine mapping and
• Gain greater access to natural resources on land and in the water

As an enticement, Beijing is offering millions of dollars in financial aid, the prospect of a potentially lucrative China-Pacific islands free trade agreement and access to China’s vast market  of 1.4 billion people.

Why Pacific Nations rejected this lollipop?

• The offer is perceived was “disingenuous” and would “ensure Chinese influence in government” and “economic control” of key industries.
• The nations leaders said they could not agree to Beijing's proposed "Common Development Vision" due to a lack of regional consensus.
• Western powers have bristled against China's move into the region, with the US State Department warning South Pacific nations to be wary of "shadowy, vague deals with little transparency".
• Australia joined the United States in urging a spurning of China's attempts to expand its security reach deep into the region, with the country's new foreign minister warning of the "consequences" of such deals.
• Many in the Pacific are uneasy at being thrust to the centre of a geopolitical tussle between China and US allies.
• Most capitals are keen to maintain amicable ties with China, balancing relations between Beijing, Washington, Canberra and Wellington, while focusing on the more urgent threat of climate change and day-to-day economic issues.
• It "means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas, whose job has been lost to a pandemic or whose family is impacted by the rapid rise in the price of commodities", he said.
• All but a few of the Pacific Islands are low-lying and deeply vulnerable to sea-level rises caused by climate change.