China’s Rising Star

Chinese Ambassador Cai Jinbiao tells Pacific Magazine the two countries' ties have grown "steadily and smoothly" not only covering trade, but cultural and agricultural links.

Today, parts of Suva resemble the beginnings of a Chinatown, with line after line of Chinese shops trading everything from tissues to cheap television sets and clothes. Over a century since the first Chinese came, Fiji is experiencing a new influx of migrants keen to make this place their home. However, recent high-profile cases involving recent immigrants and visitors such as a drug-manufacturing trial and murders have tarnished the image of the community whose earliest immigrants have integrated and lived well with the rest of Fijian society.

Marks St. in Suva is home to some long-established Chinese business. Photos: Bruce Southwick/Zoom Fiji

Chinese Association President Dixon Seeto feels the painting of the entire community with one brush is "very unfair." He blames the lax laws and officials who allow opportunists to use Fiji as base for their illegal activity.

"By and large we are very law-abiding citizens. Our main concerns are not political-but that's not to say we're not interested in politics," says Seeto. He says for the size of the community they have integrated well with cases of inter-marriage quite high. In 1996 the government said there were 4,939 Chinese in Fiji. Seeto says there is now over 6,000.

This suggests the numbers of Chinese have increased significantly since 1996.

Now that Fiji has approved destination status (ADS), the government believes it poses new challenges in dealing with Chinese tourists.

Onisivo Vuniyaro, chief assistant secretary in the Political and Treaties Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says the government is targeting middle-class Chinese and not what he calls "unwanted characters. We are moving into a very big market and a very controversial one," he said earlier this year. "It can be a very sensitive issue."

By "unwanted characters" Vuniyaro is referring to Asians accused of serious crimes in Fiji and allegations of gangland activity. Opening the Pacific's door to the problems stereotypically associated with unscrupulous Asians is a concern, says Vuniyaro.

There is also some disquiet about the extent of China's growing influence on the sovereignty of some Pacific Islands countries.

Some observers fear that as the United States moves its focus from the region and concentrates more on the global war on terrorism, China is gaining ground. But others have urged caution in estimating Chinese supremacy.

Dr. Sandra Tarte, a senior lecturer at the University of the South Pacific's Department of History and Politics, cites the example of Japan, which in the 1980s was seen as the future power economically and politically in the region. When the Japanese economy took a nosedive in the 1990s those expectations did not eventuate.

But she warns governments must tread carefully over such issues.

"I think we've got to be smart about these things. I think no government wants to sell itself out. It wants to have a bit of leverage and if doing deals with China gives us a bit more leverage with our other partners then that might be to our advantage," Dr Tarte says.

Ambassador Cai is positive about the on-going relations and he sees Suva as an important location since it is the acknowledged hub of regional politics and decision-making. Such is the importance that the Chinese are awaiting final approvals to build a US$5 million embassy complex not far from the current embassy at Nasese.

"I'm quite confident that in the future years our political relationship, economic and cultural relations will go to new heights," says Cai.