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Islanders welcome Chinese cash, but not
Chinese
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY - China is fast becoming the new chest of
gold for the South Pacific islands, but the islanders,
from the Marshall Islands to Fiji, are not as eager to
welcome Chinese nationals into their societies.
While economic ties between China and the
Pacific islands are growing, people in the region are
becoming increasingly suspicious of Chinese business
practices that are linked to crime syndicates and
prostitution. These are raising the ire of local
business and community leaders.
Last week the
secretary general of the 16-nation South Pacific Forum
(SPF), Noel Levi, was in Beijing for the official launch
of the forum's first overseas trade mission. He held
talks with senior Chinese officials, including Vice
Premier Qian Qichen, to attract Chinese investments and
tourists to the South Pacific. "I think they are looking
for opportunities for direct investments, perhaps in
fisheries, perhaps in forestry and joint ventures," Levi
said on Radio Australia.
Bilateral trade with
China is now in favor of the Pacific islands, and trade
volume between the two is expected to rise in the coming
years. Each year, China exports to the Pacific US$69
million in goods such as textiles, home appliances and
food products. China imports about $130 million in goods
from the islands, including logs, sugar and marine
products.
In May, during a visit to China,
Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase signed an
agreement for fishing cooperation between the two
countries, and witnessed a Chinese tuna-fishing fleet
leaving Chinese shores for Fiji. Last month, China
declared Fiji an approved tourist destination, which
will help attract Chinese tourists to the islands.
But while nation-to-nation relations seem to be
sailing on calm seas, community and business leaders in
Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Marshall Islands have
expressed concern about the Chinese gradually beginning
to dominate local commerce. They are also worried about
the activities of China's organized crime syndicates,
which media reports say have followed the rising number
of Chinese nationals coming for business, tourism or
work.
At the same time, the negative image of
the Chinese is upsetting long-term Chinese residents
such as influential businessman and Fiji Chinese
Association president Lionel Lee, who says that for long
his community in Fiji was regarded as "hard-working and
trouble-free".
In Fiji, a sudden rise in the
number of Chinese in the island has coincided with a
rise in prostitution, drugs, gambling and people
smuggling, according to news reports.
This
month, joint raids by police, immigration and home
affairs officers on nightspots throughout Suva led to
arrest of 12 Chinese illegal immigrants. According to
immigration officials, there are about 2,000 illegal
immigrants in the Fiji Islands. Fiji's police director
of operations, Jahir Khan, says most of the Chinese
immigrants enter the country through fishing operations,
universities and business. "There is a massive problem,
and the Immigration Department has lost track of
controlling this problem of illegal immigrants," he said
on Radio Australia.
Fiji, with a population of
750,000, has about 300 islands scattered across the
South Pacific Ocean. Police and naval officers suspect
that human-smuggling syndicates from China offload
illegal immigrants from fishing boats in remote islands
and bring them to Suva and other cities through domestic
navigation routes.
For most of this year, media
have reported about Chinese triad rings operating out of
Fiji, as well as reports of gang fights breaking out on
the streets of the capital Suva and one well-publicized
murder in May within the Chinese community. There have
also been reports in the media of Chinese women working
as prostitutes in Suva.
Newspapers have also
reported that Chinese are running exclusive prostitution
rings in Suva, and barring access to brothels by
non-Chinese visitors. In its latest issue, Pacific
Monthly reported that Suva has at least 40 brothels. "A
flood of mainland Chinese into Fiji is embroidering
Suva's social scene with 'Chinese only' whorehouses,"
the magazine claimed, adding that these were serving an
increasing number of Chinese fishermen and businessmen
allowed to open shop in Suva.
To try to cope
with this wave of immigration and its effects, Fiji has
reduced its tourist visa from four months to just one
month. Officials are also grappling with how to address
illegal immigration while encouraging the investments
that Fiji needs.
Many Chinese, mostly women,
come to work in garment factories set up by Chinese
investors. But in March, the government found that it
had issued eight work permits to a Chinese investor to
bring in workers for a firm that has not been in
operation for a year.
"Garment-factory owners,
especially from China, have argued that the Chinese are
better workers," said Yashwant Gaunder, publisher of the
Fiji business monthly The Review.
But police
believe this is an excuse to bring in women to work as
prostitutes. "We must remember that these women are
being brought to work at a cheaper rate than the locals.
They need money to live here. This is the reason they
engage in prostitution," said Inspector Unaisi Vuniwaqa.
Last month, Marshall Island authorities stopped
allowing Asian visitors - mostly Chinese - to obtain
30-day visas on arrival. In July, Tongan businessman and
parliamentarian Fred Sevele called on the government to
regulate the entry of Chinese to the kingdom, in order
to prevent the displacement of locals in the retail
industry. It is easy for Chinese nationals to get visas
to go there because of the aid China gives Tonga, he
said.
Meanwhile in Papua New Guinea, Chinese
bakery owner Weng Yawen became the fifth Chinese
businessman to be murdered in the country in the past
year.
This week, the Chinese ambassador to Papua
New Guinea appealed to Chinese nationals to learn to
live in harmony with the locals, earn their money
through honest means and respect their Papua New Guinea
colleagues.
Sevele warns that countries in the
Pacific must learn from the lessons of Fiji, where the
domination of commerce by the country's Indian community
led to ethnic strife. "Let's learn from the lessons of
Fiji. A lot of problems there are because of ethnic
relations," argued Sevele. "I certainly don't want to
see Tonga being dominated, as far as the commercial
sector goes, by non-Tongans."
(Inter Press
Service)
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