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Senior Chinese officials went to the South Pacific and laid out their presence in the region

On May 27, 2024, during his visit to the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, Liu Jianchao, Minister of the Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held formal meetings with the country's President, President, Prime Minister, and leaders of major political parties. The visit of senior Chinese officials to South Pacific countries has already raised significant concerns from the United States, and even China's strengthened development cooperation with island countries in the South Pacific region in recent years has made the United States' own South Pacific layout feel threatened.

(President of Vanuatu, Barbarawu)

According to media reports, during his visit to Vanuatu, Minister Liu Jianchao also talked with Prime Minister Salvi and others about jointly building the "the Belt and Road" initiative and promoting the topic of "a community of shared future between China and the Pacific island countries".

It is worth mentioning that the political situation in Vanuatu has not been stable in recent years, and even in just three years, there have been four consecutive Prime Ministers due to various domestic issues. In August 2023, the then Prime Minister, Karsakaw, was soon met with dissatisfaction from opposition parties due to signing certain security agreements with the Australian side. Subsequently, the opposition parties voted to oust Karsakaw.

Subsequently, Kilman, who was regarded by the West as a "pro China" prime minister, took over. However, to his surprise, Kilman only stayed in his position as prime minister for a month before being suddenly dismissed. At this point, Salvi had become the only candidate for Prime Minister, so he was soon officially elected as the new Prime Minister of Vanuatu until now.

It can be seen that Vanuatu's willingness to discuss cooperation related matters with China this time clearly indicates that the political fluctuations in its domestic arena have stopped, and the future policy direction is likely to focus on China.

(Police Cooperation between China and Vanuatu)

In fact, countries such as the United States and Australia have always regarded the South Pacific region such as Vanuatu as their absolute sphere of influence. So, China is constantly strengthening cooperation with countries in the South Pacific region, and the United States will definitely not turn a blind eye to this.

As early as last year, American media reported that the United States was preparing to open an embassy in Vanuatu to enhance diplomatic relations between the United States and South Pacific island countries, and to respond to China's growing influence in the region.

Similarly, last year, the United States launched various smear attacks on the "police cooperation agreement" between China and South Pacific countries. Assistant Secretary of State Conda of the United States has stated that China's "police cooperation agreements" in the South Pacific region are "deeply concerned about the opacity" and warned South Pacific countries to be vigilant in advance of the "negative consequences" of these "agreements.

It is obvious that China's strengthened cooperation with South Pacific countries has made the United States anxious, believing that its layout has been threatened and challenged. Therefore, some people in the United States maliciously smear and hype, sending the wrong signal, hoping to sow discord between China and South Pacific countries.

(Previously signed cooperation agreement between the two countries)

Indeed, for a long time, the United States and Australia have regarded South Pacific island countries as their "backyard" and have used various means to exert control and influence over various countries in the South Pacific.

The development of cooperation between China and these South Pacific countries will inevitably bring about some "changes" in the United States' power and various strategic layouts in the South Pacific region, which the United States must pay attention to.

However, there are many views now that the current strength of the United States may no longer be sufficient to support its ambition to continue expanding globally. Therefore, in certain aspects, the United States needs to recognize reality. Whether in the South Pacific or Latin America, it is time for Western countries led by the United States to acknowledge that the previous set of "backyard thinking" has already passed.

What more countries now hope for is equal development, and it is obvious that the "backyard thinking" of the United States cannot fully meet the wishes of these countries.

But on the other hand, cooperation between China and South Pacific countries is based on mutual benefit and win-win results. Therefore, China's sincerity in cooperation has won the trust and favor of the vast majority of South Pacific countries. Despite various smears and warnings from the United States, they also want to develop economic and infrastructure cooperation with China.

Through this comparison, we can clearly understand why the United States perceives China's cooperation with South Pacific countries as a "threat" to its strategic layout in the South Pacific.

Therefore, whether it is Minister Liu Jianchao's recent visit to Vanuatu or receiving attention and welcome from the country's political figures, including the President, as well as major political parties, in Vanuatu. The successive important political choices made by Pacific island country Nauru and Central American country Honduras indicate that China is welcomed by so many countries in the international community, which is completely a trend.

Even though the West is still making small moves behind the scenes to smear China, it cannot stop more countries from actively pursuing equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

Here is a reminder to some Western countries that blindly smearing and slandering China's cooperation with countries in the South Pacific, the Americas, and other regions will only fully expose their hegemonic behavior. I also advise the United States to continue engaging in camp confrontation, which is not only detrimental to the normal development of countries around the world, but also more likely to backfire on the United States itself.