China's new target in the battle to control the Pacific | 60 Minutes Australia

at its closest point the distance between australia and the solomon islands is just under 2 000 kilometers being so near here's why canberra is so worried about the deals the small pacific nation is signing with china it means the once inconceivable idea of a chinese military base being built right on our doorstep is now a reality but if you think that's concerning consider this beijing is also cozying up to papua new guinea a country of much greater strategic significance and at its closest point p g is less than five kilometers from us [Music] in the early light of day vermonter war cemetery in papua new guinea feels like a contradiction the largest in the pacific it's a place of breathtaking beauty and unimaginable sadness meticulously maintained are the graves of more than 3 000 australian soldiers who gave their lives to one of the most arduous campaigns of world war ii what's the overriding feeling for you when you when you come here well i get emotional i think of how my grandfather served in that war he may have known some of these men here [Music] for gary giufa the governor of the province that takes in the kokoda track this is a place steeped in solidarity and sacrifice well it symbolizes a a moment in time when our people came together papua new guineans and australians for common course to fight for what they felt was right do you still feel that bond resonating today between australia and p g oh yes papua new guinea has such a strong connection to australia that i feel these connections will never be broken [Music] right now though old bonds are being tested by a new struggle for dominance in the pacific [Applause] on one side an increasingly belligerent china [Applause] on the other scrambling to catch up the united states and its allies caught in the middle are pacific island nations with some tough decisions ahead is there looming world war iii for instance are we going to have to choose is that what is around the corner tonight the growing danger on our doorstep it is a bit like whack-a-mole and so sooner or later they're going to get a foothold how china is buying influence in the pacific do you have any concerns that china has an ulterior motive here we all feel that they have an ulterior motive everybody feels that the high stakes game that could reset the world order i think freedom is worth fighting for but you think freedom is under threat i do just how far are our nearest neighbours willing to go can you give a wrought iron guarantee there will never be a chinese military-based chinese naval base in your country [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you're making power plays in the pacific then papua new guinea is the jewel in the crown by far the biggest economy the biggest landmass the biggest population but what makes it so significant is its location strategically it's perfect only 100 kilometers to mainland australia on one side and the other way it's the gateway to asia suddenly this normally quiet part of the world has found itself at the very centre of a battle for superpower supremacy the phrase you hear over and over in papua new guinea is friends to all enemies to none it's a way of saying when it comes to investment all bets are on the table and that's just the way peter kangamar likes it do you have a preferred business partner right now we come from a culture where we marry three or four wives [Laughter] construct a road from violence peter is project director and chief spruiker have a bold new vision for papua new guinea it catches my eye but there are fighter jets here yeah that's when we're modeling this we're thinking into the future it's the kind of development that could hold significant dangers for australia called the kokori ehoo special economic zone it's an ambitious 8 billion plan to carve a futuristic industrial city from virgin jungle not far from cape york you're envisioning an airport yes a huge industrial complex manufacturing headquarters right naval base yes military base yes i mean this is a big dream yes but you think it'll be reality very soon it will be reality in the next 15 years so we so we got to knock off bits and pieces starting now and that's what we are doing now china has already invested more than 30 million dollars in the project and it's itching to get more involved as it looks to establish a military foothold close to australia it's little wonder the project has raised alarm bells i guess where this gets tricky is because your development contains a military base a naval base yes that's a precarious position to be in if you're looking at whether you go with china or australia we're already getting support from china in the military and they have opened the door already you know if they increase the amount of support they're giving in in that space in the military space then they might pick up those two those two bases so yeah that's why australia has dropped off china is engine way around and i don't know what's going to happen what's your message to australia if australia wants to have some say in this then today is the time for us to talk a lot of australians are quite worried about the growing chinese presence in your country do you understand their concerns i could appreciate their concern but we know which boundaries are to protect and which boundaries not to cross it's election time in papua new guinea and prime minister james murape has invited us to join him on a trip back to his hometown of tari in the heart of the highlands [Music] in png electioneering can be an unpredictable business [Applause] [Music] but today the crowd is in good spirits [Applause] like so much of papua new guinea tari is dirt poor here geopolitical maneuvering is just about the last thing on anyone's minds [Music] have you seen the plans for kokori i've started i mean hihu special economic zone proposal do you understand the concern in australia when they see china funding a development like this and the idea is to build a naval base and to build a military base it may be a planning concept but at the national level we have not thanks on the naval base and defenses you are alluding to so can you give it a guarantee there will be no military base that could corrie who if there's a military base to be built in kikori area it will be a png defense force military base it will not be a foreign military base would you allow china to build a military or naval base on your behalf uh on our behalf on our funding maybe yes but chinese military base no but if it's chinese technology and and chinese build is setting up a military base there i mean no that's uh it can get into a pretty gray zone that's not no good for us what's really set australian nerves on edge of course is the recent revelation of a secret security deal drawn up by neighbouring solomon islands and china perhaps paving the way for a military base to be built closer to brisbane then brisbane is to perth but if the prime minister's worried about it he's not letting on you know solomon islands next country over from you there is no potential that china could have a military base just a few hundred kilometers from your country uh does that concern you i have no knowledge of that proposal well i mean they've signed an agreement saying that they could have military presence in the solomon islands i i have no information on this i have no information to be honest really seriously it's the biggest story in the region yeah and you're saying you don't know about it i mean are you just trying to be diplomatic there no no to be honest i have not seen it i have not seen it with all due respect some might suggest you're burying your head in the sand uh not necessarily not necessarily i i try i try my very best not to get into other nations sovereign issues to the experts the solomon islands deal is bad enough but given its proximity to australia a chinese military presence in png would be on another level of strategic threat entirely if the pacific were a monopoly board it does feel a little bit like china sees png as mayfair it's a nice way of putting it that's probably right yes i think if you look in the pacific that's i would actually be wanting to have the the uh papua new guinea as my mayfair and solomon islands is my park lane right and i put all my hotels on those two bought parts of the board for sure so they've already got parklane and they want the set yeah they're they're quite well positioned at the moment if this is a game of monopoly you'd say they've got a head start on the rest of the field veteran defense analyst alan dupont says china's intentions are very clear and it'll exploit every opportunity it can their strategy is to draw the whole region every single one of the pacific island countries into the chinese world and make them dependent on china and when you have dependency then you're basically going to give the person you're dependent on pretty much what they want because you don't have too many options there's an argument to say you know the united states australia they're not not exactly altruistic when they go and help out in these smaller nations so why shouldn't china be able to help and invest in developing nations too you have to remember that a lot of chinese aid are loans you have to pay them back and not grant aid it's not like we we've built this irrigation system for you and handing it over which we tend to do in australia chinese loans are sometimes quite restrictive and you have to pay them back and then what happens is you get this debt trapped diplomacy problem where smaller small countries recipients of chinese loans can't pay them back so the chinese say okay you can't pay it back so how about you give us a bit of your real estate instead debt for equity swap that's the deal and then you suddenly find you've lost your sovereignty and you've got a little china somewhere in your in your country where locals are not allowed [Music] debt trap diplomacy has already stung a number of countries from argentina to zambia sri lanka to laos but as you'll see it's far from the only weapon in beijing's growing arsenal [Music] given the the overall designs of china's plan here i think papua new guinea and frankly all the nations in the indo-pacific are at risk if anyone has a handle on the growing challenges in our region it's retired admiral philip davidson until april last year he was the commander of u.s forces in the pacific when you look at the situation in the pacific right now is china a threat well certainly they're using all elements of their national power economic diplomatic and yes military power to change the status quo for communist party of china objectives so china comes in talking a a friendly game but you don't think that's what they're about they have ambition by the middle of this century to displace the international order and replace it with one of their own and i think you only need to look at the closed and authoritarian society that chairman xi is leading there to understand what a threat that is to the free peoples of the indo-pacific admiral davidson has watched with alarm as china's influence in the pacific has grown exponentially in lockstep with the expansion of its military [Music] just last month with extraordinary fanfare china launched its third aircraft carrier the fujian its most sophisticated to date and seen as a rival to the very best of the us cutting edge addition to a rapidly expanding naval fleet at the turn of this century just 22 years ago it was just a few dozen ships you know that navy now consists of hundreds of ships and they're introducing modern capabilities long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles aboard those ships they're introducing nuclear power to their submarines hypersonic missiles to their rocket forces it goes on and on and on these are really profound changes in the last 20 years when there was no manifest threat from its neighbors how real do you think the potential for conflict with china is well i i think in the very nearest term china would like to do this diplomatically and economically i think that's why you're seeing such assertive moves across the indo-pacific the solomon islands specifically you know i think is of key concern to the united states and to australia and should be seen as one of the opening volleys in a competition with china because china is trying to change the status quo australia remains papua new guinea's largest development partner but there is no doubt china is raising its profile here in dramatic style across the country chinese projects are sprouting like bamboo shoots but png's prime minister james marapi is keen to highlight his country's close links to australia it's quite an impressive parliament yeah well one of australia's gift to us at in the early 80s and again symbolic of our democracy it depicts the entire nation still going strong 46 years old but given the efforts being made here by beijing it's perhaps no surprise the last big foreign dignitary to visit was china's foreign minister wang yi on a failed bid to ram through a sweeping trade and security pact with pacific island nations there is big concern in australia about this looming battle of the superpowers is there concern here we are really inconsequential to what happens with with the big boys and so for for me at the moment my first interest comes in building my own country up to be economic economically sustainable countries so that has been my focus it sounds like money talks china is important to us just just as much as australia is very important to us the critics say that china's tactic is almost a slow creep you look at the south china sea it's that'll offers fishing setups next thing you know there's military bases there and the suggestion is that that is their plan for your region too so far no conversation with china has moved in the space of a military relationship and you know look in the bigger space if if something unfolds then we'll be concerned but at this point in time i i see no immediate need for concern in our region but to some experts having an each way bet is a dangerous game the problem according to defense analyst alan dupont is that even seemingly straightforward developments can have ulterior uses is the chinese equation pretty simple investment equals influence yeah i think it's um it's a bit more than that investment obviously does does get you influence anywhere but um china is also thinking from a military point of view if we establish a presence and a relationship with a small pacific island country maybe we could parlay that into military capability too if you're building a road or railroad or a port or an airfield why not make it militarily capable let's make it the airfield long enough to take a bomber let's have the harbour development able to take um naval ships all you need to do is just make it a bit bigger and stronger and then you've got that capacity now you may not be able to use it initially but it's there as an opportunity for you down the track so that's the chinese approach and i think a long way ahead on these things you know you look at these investments i guess in isolation as a project for development here there's you know another poor facility being built there on their own i guess they seem okay but you think it adds up to a much bigger picture yes it does so that's why we have a contest and it's a very important one and we need to make sure we don't lose it so just how do we make sure we keep ahead of the game is there a sense of scrambling a sense of urgency to make sure you get ahead of this issue before things get out of hand i wouldn't describe it as scrambling i would describe it as [Music] urgency we've come to manus island to see an australian win in the competition for influence in papua new guinea a place infamous for being the site of australia's offshore detention center this laid-back slice of paradise is one of the most important strategic prizes in the whole of the pacific the reason is this the lombram naval base it was the springboard for the allies pushing back against japan in the second world war so at the at the peak that harbour was um as important to the americans in australia's pearl harbor a vital naval base in the pacific is manus island in the admiralty group which commands the approaches to papua and new guinea at its peak the base housed 37 000 military personnel making manus one of the most important staging posts of world war ii defense analyst alan dupont views the strategically located deep port here just as important now as it was then if you have a military presence there you can project power out from munos island not only into the south pacific but into the south china sea also if you wanted to attack australia it'd be the perfect place to attack australia from you know if you just turn it around we're talking strategy here but when as soon as people start hearing hang on what sorry attack australia i mean is that something that is on the cards in the years to come if china thinks that australia is going to join with the united states and japan to support taiwan in a war they feel they must win they will target australia militarily all right now the problem for china at the moment is most of their missiles don't have the range to re reach continental australia but if you get a base on a manus island for example and you can put some of your missiles there that's a different proposition suddenly the whole of australia comes within range and all our military facilities and so on a few years ago when china was looking to invest in lombum australia recognized the danger gazumping beijing with a 175 million deal to upgrade the base an agreement that allows australian and u.s warships to dock here china may have missed out on the lombard base but it's getting a foothold elsewhere on manus island 80k along the coast from here chinese contractors are beginning work on a new fishing operation complete with a 140 meter long wharf they've also revamped the nearby airport installing a longer military capable runway the worry is that one day seemingly innocent projects will be used for more sinister purposes and that's why in the battle for influence every little win counts monus island seems like the perfect case study of how this plays out in the pacific because australia and the us scramble to to get control of that naval base but then china is set up here and there instead it is a bit like whack-a-mole so we might get a win there on lombram but then the chinese pop up somewhere else in suva or kiribati or solomon islands and so sooner or later they're going to get a foothold [Music] what's become abundantly clear is that the security of australia could well hinge on the leaders of some of the tiniest and most impoverished nations on earth i think we are facing the most challenging strategic circumstances since world war ii how we respond to that is is the test of leadership for australia's foreign minister penny wong it's been a frenetic first few weeks in the job zigzagging her way across the pacific in a reassuring diplomatic dance [Applause] it's been a whirlwind a couple of months for you yeah it was a fair bit to do i thought it was really important that we sort of get out there with the energy and momentum of a new government um try and leverage that as best as possible and make sure we talk with and listen to the region it's important for australia to do that [Music] so what is the pitch that you know you stump up in these countries and say all right well i think the first pitch is we're we're family you know we're part of the pacific family we are in the region uh and the pitch is your security and your future prosperity is tied to ours every analyst will tell you that china doesn't exactly play by the rules on a lot of these issues how do you beat someone that doesn't play by the rules uh well my job as the australian foreign minister is to try and utilise the the tools we have to maximise australia's influence and engagement with the region charm offensive uh it's not just charm um i think it's you know being authentic and you know i think demonstrating to the nations of the region we we get that our security is you know he's bound together and no one can go it alone smaller and middle power nations you know we have to work together and we have to work together not not just against but for and what we're working for peace security prosperity [Music] in this battle for influence papua new guinea's prime minister james murape says his country can be trusted to make the right decisions it's nice to have two countries fighting for your affection isn't it uh no we've been relating with both countries uh since 1975 you know there's always space for both nations without compromising our core principles as our country can you give a wrought iron guarantee there will never be a chinese military base a chinese naval base in your country they'll never be the solomon islands gave similar commitments not that long ago and history shows how that panned out hopefully papua new guinea is truer to its word in years to come as australia's bonds in the pacific are tested like never before could you ever envisage that papua new guinea would find itself at the center of the biggest geopolitical battle of our time well i'm certainly concerned you know i feel personally that china is just moving around trying to put in place arrangements to feed its massive appetite for growth that's what they're doing but the way they're going about it is probably what is of grave concern to many nations including us strongly man you're gravely concerned about what's happening where we are because we want to ensure that we're not caught in the middle of a conflict that appears to be emerging that's looming you know nobody wants to be in the conflict zone the worst case scenario is a worry for us all but for gary giufa the governor of oro province those shared bonds between australia and its nearest neighbor still count for a lot [Music] that connection will always remain but it can get stronger or weaker and that all depends on how we manage our relationship going into the future all relationships get tested over time absolutely there is no perfect relationship you know some break down some break down there are bitter divorces that take place sometimes but i don't think this would happen with png in australia you know we're going to be together for a long time there'll be ups and downs but png in australia are firmly connected hello i'm tom steinfert thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on ninenow.com.eu as well as the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

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Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, china, pacific, solomon, island, papua new guinea, australia, world, politics, penny wong, xi jinping, communism, superpower, beijing, united states, world war, conflict, missile, security

Id: EneDjQNuD3k

Length: 28min 45sec (1725 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 03 2022