The Pacific has long been the playground of European powers. France even now has what the French call patronisingly ‘protectorates’) in the Pacific including French Polynesia ( including Tahiti), New Caledonia, and Wallis. The independence movement in New Caledonia is particularly strong and has resulted in a number of clashes recently with the French occupying force there.
The United States has bases and territories in the Pacific, including Guam, American Samoa, Wake Island and Kwajalein Atoll and also of course Hawaii which has become a US state. The US also has several naval bases in the Pacific, including Pearl Harbour, Guam, Majuro Atoll San Diego and in American Samoa.
Australia’s primary Pacific territories include, Norfolk Island, the Coral Sea Islands (Including Willis Island) Lord Howe Island and the Torres Strait Islands; with the most notable base and populated territory being Norfolk Island, located roughly 1600km northeast of Sydney.
New Zealand’s Pacific territories include the semi-independent Cook Islands (whose citizens have dual citizenship with New Zealand), Niue and the Tokelau Islands . The Cook Islands government has recently caused a furore in New Zealand by negotiating a trade agreement with China without first discussing it with New Zealand.
Both New Zealand and Australia are members of Five Eyes the notorious US,UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand intelligence network , which has for 75 years supported Israel’s genocide in Palestine through information provision and has been directly involved in providing vital intelligence for many of the brutal offensive wars conducted by the US and NATO-including the genocide in Korea , Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the current war in Ukraine, and many more..
So perhaps it is perfectly understandable that New Zealand and Australia as part of the U.S. ‘international rule based order’ see their capacity to play their part in maiming and murdering millions for power and profit being threatened by the new kid on the block: China!
New Zealand has also relied on cheap (often illegally so) migrant Pasifika labour for its economy to expand over the past 50 years. Keeping Pacific Island countries therefore in a state of poverty has therefore been a desired outcome for NZ economists, to ensure a good flow of migrants. China’s resurgence is therefore a major threat to this strategy, bringing significant economic benefits via trade to Island nations and the likelihood that their populations will be more inclined to stay put. Having said that, China/Pasifika business ventures like deep sea mining are also a major threat to the environmental sustainability of the Pacific.
Despite the extensive hype from Australian and New Zealand journalists politicians and ‘experts’ , there is no evidence as yet of China establishing naval or air bases in those Pacific countries-unlike Australia and the US. What is curious is the almost total gung-ho support and consistent messaging from New Zealand journalists and ‘experts’ for more China bashing and more pointless New Zealand resources going into New Zealand’s military – on the somewhat ridiculous assumption that New Zealand’s tiny military footprint would have any impact on anything at all in a global conflict between superpowers.
China is now after all, a global super-power; it would indeed be strange if it did not have a presence this far south . China has steadily increased its naval presence in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Tasman Sea over the past few years. This is part of a broader strategy to expand its influence and protect its trading interests from a very belligerent United States and its co-opted allies-particularly Australia who has recently the AUKUS boondoggle deal to have the US build nuclear submarines Australia wont need, at staggering cost. New Zealand ‘experts’ are now saying New Zealand should also be part of this scam, to defend New Zealand from China!.
Rather than Australia and New Zealand acknowledging the new realities of China’s burgeoning global military and economic strength, and working with that (China after all clearly has absolutely no interest in invading Australia or New Zealand), Australia and New Zealand’s ‘experts’ and politicians instead want to hype up their populations for a futile and disastrous conflict with China. Bizarrely China is also Australia and New Zealand’s major trading partner.
It should also be remembered that United States naval forces and their NATO allies have traversed the South China Sea- very close to China’s borders, hundreds of times a year over the past 5 years. Ostensibly the US says that this is to ensure safe maritime passage in the area- but of course the vast majority of trade through the South China Sea is in fact Chinese.
The Chinese are under no allusions that the US is facilitating freedom of transit of this major trade route but are in fact threatening to blockade their vital maritime trade routes to the world..With its 904 military bases around the world, the US and its ‘Allies” are not a force for good in the world!
While New Zealand and Australia should logically be monitoring and preparing for any real military threats that might arise in the future, they also need to be adapting to a new multipolar world order, where the might-is-right rules of the U.S. ‘Rule Based International Order’ will thankfully no longer apply.
The development of open and honest communication channels with the Chinese Government instead of the current belligerency and media confrontation, would also be a helpful start, along with the development of long forgotten diplomacy skills.
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Links
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/542679/china-begins-second-military-exercise-in-tasman-sea
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/08/analysis-anger-in-cook-islands-at-recent-moves/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/542733/cook-islands-deal-opens-up-pacific-to-china-expert
New Antarctica 