The Pacific nation watched in shock as Chinese security agents marched what it said were 77 criminal suspects onto a plane and flew them away for detention in China.
When four Chinese detectives breezed into police headquarters in Suva in the middle of 2017, it quickly became apparent they weren’t in Fiji’s capital merely to help with an inquiry. Instead, the officers planned to carry out the investigation – into Chinese nationals suspected of running internet scams from the South Pacific island – pretty much as if they were back in China.
“We didn’t even know there was an agreement,” Aman Ravindra-Singh, a lawyer who was one of the few public figures in Fiji to speak out against the arrests at the time, said of the memorandum. “The next thing we knew, there were knocks on people’s doors in [the city of] Nadi and there were Chinese people in full uniform arresting people. It was unheard of. It’s almost like we were invaded.”
China’s push into the region – it is interested in these tiny, underdeveloped Pacific countries not only for their votes at the United Nations but also for their large territorial waters – appears to have taken the United States by surprise, leading to a sudden spurt of engagement by Washington.– as well as promoting their own security agreements – in the Pacific.
When Fisi Nasario was offered the chance to study in China, the Fijian police officer felt he couldn’t refuse. Nasario normally couldn’t afford to do a master’s degree in Fiji, let alone abroad. But Beijing was offering to pay for his travel, tuition and expenses for two years. He would return home to a promotion and a raise. It was all the result of the policing agreement with China.
A final, English-language copy shows that the agreement was more detailed than many of China’s other MOUs with developing countries, most of them in Africa. The experience appeared designed not only to educate but also to impress. The international students toured modern Chinese police command centres and marvelled at the force’s high-tech drones. They visited tourist destinations like the Great Wall near Beijing and Shanghai Disneyland.
The issues worsened with the appointment of a former Fiji military commander, Sitiveni Qiliho, as police commissioner in 2015, as the line between police and military became increasingly blurred, she added. It’s unclear whether Chinese training contributed, but it didn’t help, human rights activists said.
China provided Fiji with several million dollars’ worth of equipment during the lifetime of the MOU, including police cars and motorcycles, uniforms and marching band instruments. Blake Johnson, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Fiji-China MOU had started small but grown over time into something serious enough to trouble Australian officials.
The spectre of Chinese surveillance resurfaced last year when Beijing pushed a sweeping pact with 10 Pacific island nations that would have given China influence over policing, customs, cybersecurity, communications, deep-sea mining and more. Rabuka’s January 26 announcement scrapping the MOU came as a surprise, even to US officials who welcomed it as a sign of a pro-American inclination. The new prime minister had hinted at the move on the campaign trail but few expected him to act after only a month in office.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pacific leaders tackle Bowen over fossil fuels during Fiji visitAs Australia seeks to shore up support to co-host a United Nations climate conference with the Pacific in 2026, some elders are pushing back on our coal and gas exports.
Read more »
Pacific leaders tackle Bowen over fossil fuels during Fiji visitAs Australia seeks to shore up support to co-host a United Nations climate conference with the Pacific in 2026, some elders are pushing back on our coal and gas exports.
Read more »
Pacific leaders tackle Bowen over fossil fuels during Fiji visitAs Australia seeks to shore up support to co-host a United Nations climate conference with the Pacific in 2026, some elders are pushing back on our coal and gas exports.
Read more »
Japan begins releasing Fukushima wastewater into Pacific oceanWater containing radioactive tritium being pumped into ocean via tunnel from Tepco plant, amid protests from China, South Korea and fishing communities
Read more »
Chinese activist escapes to South Korea on jet skiWith five barrels of petrol, binoculars and a compass, Kwon Pyong navigates a jet ski more than 300 kilometres across the Yellow Sea from Shandong to Incheon.
Read more »
Men charged after alleged kidnapping of Chinese teen in MelbourneThe 19-year-old&x27;s alleged kidnappers demanded $200,000, police say.
Read more »