Welcome to "Sima Pingbang Said". In June 1946, the Truman government carried out a nuclear explosion in the Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, and French designer Louis Real had the ingenuity to name his new three-point swimsuit a bikini, symbolizing shock and chain reaction. Now some European media have ridiculed that the Biden administration's military policy of returning the United States to South Pacific countries is also like wearing a bikini, almost completely exposed, to "counter China's influence in the Pacific."
According to US media reports on May 23, the United States signed strategic agreements with the South Pacific island countries of Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and Palau within 48 hours, although Blinken claimed that these agreements "have nothing to do with any country", which is pure nonsense.
The most notable of these agreements is the bilateral defense cooperation agreement signed between the United States and Papua New Guinea. The full content of this security agreement has not been made public, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation pointed out that from the previously leaked draft, the agreement will allow the United States to use key military and civilian facilities such as airports and ports in Papua New Guinea, and allow the US military to have a substantial presence in Papua New Guinea. According to the Nikkei newspaper, the US military's available targets include: Rumblum Naval Base in northern Papua New Guinea, Momot Airport, the international airport in the capital Port Moresby, and the port. The Lae port in central Papua New Guinea and Nazab airport were also listed as alternatives. It is undoubtedly announcing that Lao Mei is strengthening the second island chain.
Open the map of the Pacific Ocean, and you will see that Papua New Guinea, the largest island country in the South Pacific, is too important. It is an important node connecting Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, East Asia and South America, and the Southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It is located in the second island chain connecting the Ogasawara Islands and Guam, and is also the main point of the sea route from Australia to North America and Northeast Asia. Once the US military occupies Papua New Guinea, it will not only cut off China's sea route to import energy from South America, but also establish a northern strategic barrier to defend Australia.
Recently, the United States has been making frequent moves in the South Pacific. In addition to the strategic agreements just concluded with Papua New Guinea, Micronesia and Palau, negotiations for the renewal of the Free Association Agreement between the United States and the Marshall Islands are ongoing, and an embassy opened in Tonga in early May. Lao Mei is increasing its attention and investment in the South Pacific, wooing these small island countries into the sphere of influence, and realizing the construction of another firewall for China on the second island chain.
During the Cold War, in order to contain the Soviet Union, the South Pacific island countries have always been active areas for the United States, Australia and New Zealand. After the end of the Cold War, the United States began to abandon the South Pacific, withdraw the embassies of some island countries, and reduce aid to the region. But, especially last year, when China reached a security cooperation agreement with the Solomon Islands, it strongly stimulated Uncle Sam's most sensitive nerves.
Solomon Islands, located in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, connects Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and is an important strategic hub for the Asia-Pacific region. In August 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps landed on Guadalcanal and fought a fierce battle with the Japanese forces on the island and related waters for seven months, taking the first step into the Japanese homeland. Although it has been more than 70 years since the end of World War II, the Solomon Islands is still an important strategic point in the process of the great power game.
After World War II, the United States left the South Pacific island countries to Australia for "administration". Australia has never been a businessman, and did not expect China's tentacles to soon reach into the region. In 2019, Solomon Islands and Taiwan "severed diplomatic relations" with China and established diplomatic relations with China. Two years later, the previously calm security situation in Solomon deteriorated sharply, and at the end of 2021, another riot of a bad nature broke out in the capital, burning many Chinese shops. Solomon's government certainly understood who was behind all this. Undeterred, they not only signed a police agreement with the Chinese government to ask the Chinese armed police to help train the police, but also redoubled their efforts to sign a security agreement with the Chinese side last year, and this year, Chinese companies won bids for port projects in the capital, Honiara, and other places. The moves have left the United States and Australia sleepless, fearing that China will establish a naval base in the Solomon Islands.
Zoomed in, the warming of relations between China and the Solomon Islands is definitely a brilliant move, which is equivalent to implementing a "breaking circle" on the second island chain in advance, laying a nail in the South Pacific, in essence, a strong countermeasure to the Anglo-Saxon system organization AUKUS of the United States, Britain and Australia, and telling the Anglo-Sawan people unmistakably that since you can go to the South China Sea to make trouble, we can also go to your door to "lay mines".
China also made another important move in the South Pacific last year. It was the Y-20 that appeared in the disaster relief after the eruption of the volcano in Tonga, and the world suddenly realized that the strategic projection capability of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was already so powerful. Tonga is actually farther from China than the Solomon Islands, and Chinese transport planes can deliver aid; Tonga is so close to Australia, but Australia is just pretentious and indifferent to Tonga's suffering. The South Pacific island countries saw all this in their eyes, so they formed a chain reaction and began to develop relations with China. Even Kiribati, which has always been pro-American, has signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative, and China is expected to resume the space monitoring station it has built in the country.
Now, the South Pacific has become a new battlefield in the Sino-US game. Although Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Marape said that the bilateral defense cooperation agreement signed between the United States and Papua New Guinea prohibits "offensive military operations" and that Papua New Guinea will not be used as a base for waging wars, this sounds like a silver tael here. You're not targeting China, are you dealing with sharks?
To put it bluntly, Papua New Guinea now wants to eat both, such a country will not have good fruit to eat in the end, but in order for them to really think about this truth, they must really suffer.
I have to admit that the current South Pacific is still a region seriously inclined to the United States, after all, the United States is building Australia into a key forward base for the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" and obstructing the further development of relations between China and the South Pacific island countries.
However, I think our "circle-breaking" strategy is actually ready, and when Macron visited China in early April this year, Article 4 of the Sino-French Joint Statement is: China and France agreed to deepen exchanges on strategic issues, especially the dialogue between the PLA's Southern Theater and the French Pacific Theater, and strengthen mutual understanding on international and regional security issues.
France has three overseas territories in the South Pacific: French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna. These territories are strategic for France, they are located between the United States and Australia, if the Chinese and French militaries interact here, they can contain the United States and Australia in the Indo-Pacific region, and also allow China to find a breakthrough in the "Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States, or it is possible to find a breakthrough.
In 2021, the AUKUS agreement was finalized, the United States and the United Kingdom will help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, and Kangaroo State terminated the large 60 billion euro order signed with France to buy conventional submarines without notifying France in advance. Although the relationship between France and Australia has eased recently, from the overall situation including the Russian-Ukrainian war, France has become a big variable in the global game between China and the United States.
China is the new power of the South Pacific, China's countermeasure to squeeze the United States is not military against military, but with peace and market to counter the military, so it depends on what kind of logic you use to understand, it can be said that China is very promising, every step is a big progress, it can also be said that China is facing greater pressure, the situation is simply not optimistic.