China in Oceania

It is important to see China’s activities in the Pacific Islands, not just in terms of a specific set of interests, but in the context of Beijing’s recent efforts to develop a comprehensive and global foreign policy. China’s policy towards Oceania is part of a much larger outreach to the developing world, a major work in progress that involves similar initiatives in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. This groundbreaking study of China’s soft power” initiatives in these countries offers, for the first time, the diverse perspectives of scholars and diplomats from Oceania, North American, China and Japan. It explores such issues as regional competition for diplomatic and economic ties between Taiwan and China, the role of overseas Chinese in developing these relationships and various analyses of the benefits and drawbacks of China’s growing presence in Oceania. In addition, the reader obtains a rare review of the Japanese response to China’s role in Oceania, presented by Japan’s leading scholar of the Pacific region.

Terence Wesley-Smith is Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the Center for Pacific Islands at the University of Hawai`i. A political scientist with degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Hawai'i, he teaches about contemporary issues in Oceania and is the editor of The Contemporary Pacific. Edgar A. Porter is Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Japan. Prior to joining APU he was Interim Dean of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawai'i. He is the author of Foreign Teachers in China: Old Problems for a New Generation (Greenwood 1990) and The People's Doctor: George Hatem and China's Revolution (University of Hawai'i Press 1997).