中山大学大洋洲研究中心将与新西兰维多利亚大学、萨摩亚国立大学联合主办“China and the Pacific: The View from Oceania”国际会议

Date: 25 - 27 February 2015

Venue: Apia, Samoa

The conference is now open for registration. Register now.

Co-organised by New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, National University of Samoa, Centre for Oceania Studies, Sun Yat-sen University

This conference will take a multidisciplinary approach to examining Pacific Island perspectives on China’s evolving relations with countries in the Pacific region, primarily Polynesia and Melanesia. The lead organiser is the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, a national centre based at Victoria University of Wellington. It has six University Members: Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, the University of Canterbury, the University of Otago and the University of Waikato.

The region became a focus of Beijing’s regional diplomacy under the presidency of Hu Jintao, a trend that is continuing under the developing foreign policy of President Xi Jinping. China’s interests in the South Pacific are not new, as the region has been a focus for Chinese migration since the nineteenth century. More recently, China has been concerned to establish in the region its position as a major power and to wield influence accordingly. It resisted a Taiwanese effort to attract diplomatic followers among Pacific Island states and competition effectively ended in 2008 following a diplomatic truce between Beijing and Taipei. And in recent years China has developed significant interest in the resources of the region: land-based, including minerals and timber, and marine, including fisheries and, potentially, seabed minerals.

The growing Chinese economic presence in the Pacific has led to debate about its long-term interests in the region, including the impact of Chinese economic activity on the economic growth and social development of Pacific Island states. Development issues in individual countries are likely to continue to be vitally important. How China’s approach to development cooperation fits in with, or is distinct from that of traditional donors in the region is a matter of some discussion. The joint project in the Cook Islands is a first, but to what extent is it, or do Pacific governments want it to be a model for future projects? Overall, there are questions about the long-term implications for the region of China’s re-emergence as not just a regional but also a global power, and the accommodations which this may require of other countries in, and involved in, the region.

These developments have also led to discussion as to whether Beijing’s expanded political and economic presence in the South Pacific will lead to greater cooperation or competition between China and the more established actors in the region, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Japan. Both China and the United States have increased their role in both Pacific Island countries and at the Pacific Islands Forum in recent years, and Australia and New Zealand have had to adjust their longstanding Pacific diplomacy to take account of the growing Chinese presence.

Has this growing Chinese political and economic presence led to a more positive environment for Pacific nations, and does it provide an opportunity for all major international actors to work together with Pacific nations to support their economic development? The security environment of the region is currently benign: will this be affected by these new developments?

At this conference the focus will be on scholarship, perspectives and viewpoints on these subjects from within Pacific Island countries. It will also involve perspectives from outside the region itself.

The conference will take place over two days at the National University of Samoa in Apia, on 25 and 26 February 2015. We welcome participation, particularly from scholars and policy analysts within the South Pacific.

The original link:http://www.victoria.ac.nz/chinaresearchcentre/programmes-and-projects/china-symposiums/china-and-the-pacific-the-view-from-oceania