China denies plan to build military base in South Pacific
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka warned this week against any Chinese efforts to establish a military toehold in the strategically contested region.
"If they want to come, who would welcome them? Not Fiji," Rabuka said in an address in Australia. "And I think that China understands that well."
China's embassy blamed journalists for peddling "false narratives" about its military ambitions.
"There is no political strings attached to China's assistance, no imposing one's will onto others, and no empty promises," an embassy spokesman said in statement posted to social media Thursday.
"The claims about 'China setting up a military base in the Pacific' are false narratives.
"They are baseless and driven by ulterior motives."
The South Pacific – home to some of the world's smallest, least developed, and most climate-threatened countries – is at the centre of a diplomatic scramble pitting China against its Western rivals.
China inked a secretive security pact with Pacific nation Solomon Islands in 2022.
Although the details have never been published, the United States and close ally Australia fear it may be the prelude to some kind of permanent Chinese base.
China maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands and Kiribati, sending officers to train locals in shooting, riot tactics and martial arts.
The Chinese embassy spokesman said Beijing would never force Pacific island nations to "sacrifice their sovereignty."
"China's presence in the Pacific is focused on building roads and bridges to improve people's livelihoods, not on stationing troops or setting up military bases."
Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, presidential palaces, hospitals and roads in Pacific island nations.
This charm offensive appears to have borne fruit.
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