CHINA'S BID FOR THE SOUTH PACIFIC

BEIJING is aggressively expanding its reach throughout the region, saying its interests are purely diplomatic and commercial. The real long term goal is STRATEGIC

- DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

CHINA'S AMBASSADOR TO VANUATU WAS exceptionally busy in December as the tiny Pacific Island nation signed a security deal with America's key ally Australia. Starting on December 13, when Vanuatu and Australia sealed the agreement, Ambassador Li Minggang hosted three events over three days in Vanuatu, including at the massive Chinese embassy in the capital Port Vila. Li was at pains to highlight China's extensive involvement in the region with aid and infrastructure and its 40 years of diplomatic ties to a country where the U.S. has no embassy on the ground. Beijing's message was clear: China was there for the long haul-and it was bringing gifts.

China was willing to work with Vanuatu "to advance our strategic alignment," Li told about 200 top government officials and other dignitaries on December 14, as they enjoyed Chinese delicacies and tried their hand at calligraphy, according to the embassy.

The day after signing the formal security deal with Australia, Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who had once voiced criticism of his predecessor's good relationship with Beijing, was pictured getting a Chinese massage.

Li's flurry of activity starkly underscored his country's determined push for economic and political influence in the South Pacific, where growing competition between China and the United States-joined by allies such as Australia and Japan and closely watched by India-swirls across thousands of miles of ocean in a region with sea lanes that are important for world trade, that is crossed by underwater cables carrying global communications and is dotted with islands that offer excellent ports and airfields of potential strategic importance for whichever military can count on them.