China woos Pacific islands with loans, showcase projects

As world leaders land in Papua New Guinea for a Pacific Rim summit, the welcome mat is especially big for China's president.

A huge sign in the capital, Port Moresby, welcomes Xi Jinping, picturing him gazing beneficently beside Papua New Guinea's leader, and his hotel is decked out with red Chinese lanterns.

China's footprint is everywhere, from a showpiece boulevard and international convention center built with Chinese help to bus stop shelters that announce their origins with "China Aid" plaques.

On the eve of Xi's arrival for a state visit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, newspapers in the country ran a full-page statement from the Chinese leader.

It exhorted Pacific island nations to "set sail on a new voyage" of relations with China, which in the space of a generation has transformed from the world's most populous backwater into a major economic power.

With both actions and words, Xi has a compelling message for the South Pacific's fragile island states, long both propped up and pushed around by US ally Australia: they now have a choice of benefactors.

With the exception of Papua New Guinea, those island nations are not part of APEC, but the leaders of many of them have travelled to Port Moresby and will meet with Xi.

The APEC meeting, meanwhile, is Xi's to dominate. Headline-hogging leaders such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump are not attending.

Trump's stand-in, Vice President Mike Pence, is staying in Cairns in Australia's north and flying into Papua New Guinea each day.

Australia's new prime minister, Scott Morrison, the country's fifth leader in five years, is barely known abroad.

"President Xi Jinping is a good friend of Papua New Guinea," its prime minister, Peter O'Neill, told reporters.

"He has had a lot of engagement with Papua New Guinea and I've visited China 12 times in the last seven years."
"There's a build, neglect, rebuild paradigm in PNG as opposed to build and maintain which is far more efficient."