ANALYSIS: Resource-rich PNG is the jewel in the crown of China’s ambitions for greater influence among the 20 island states in the Pacific.
When Xi Jinping visited Papua New Guinea four years ago, there was no doubt about China’s grand ambitions in the region.
PNG had already signed up to Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative and Beijing was promising generous financial support to a country that was suddenly at the centre of a diplomatic tug-of-war between China and the United States. Crowds wave as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for his visit to the Butuka Academy school in Port Moresby in 2018., its economic influence in Port Moresby remains key to its ambitions in the region. Resource-rich PNG is the jewel in the crown of China’s ambitions for greater influence among the 20 island states in the Pacific because it overshadows the other islands economically.
This is understandable for a nation that is in desperate need for power, telecommunications and transport infrastructure. It is resource rich, but a string of projects such as the Porgera gold mining joint venture between China and Canada have run into development problems. There is still no road between Port Moresby and the island’s second-biggest city, Lae.
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