Japan steps up diplomatic, military engagement in Pacific islands amid mounting US-China rivalry

Tokyo plans to open a new embassy in Kiribati, one of Beijing’s newest Pacific allies, and has increased military cooperation with French forces in the region

Observers say Japan is worried about the region’s balance of power, as more Pacific nations have thrown their diplomatic support behind Beijing in recent years

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A Japanese soldier trains during a joint military drill with French and US forces in May. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:31pm, 3 Jan 2022

Japan will open an embassy in the Pacific island republic of Kiribati later this year as part of efforts by the US and its allies to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Tokyo will also open a consulate in French-controlled New Caledonia, the Yomiuri newspaper quoted a foreign ministry official as confirming, as Japan steps up its military cooperation with French forces in the region.

The move comes after former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga last July called for deeper ties between Tokyo and the 14 Pacific nations and separate French-controlled territories in the region, such as New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Suga pledged to offer them more coronavirus vaccine doses and economic assistance.

Only four sovereign Pacific nations continue to recognise Taipei. The rest have thrown their diplomatic support behind Beijing. Image: SCMP

“These developments are basically anti-Chinese diplomatic manoeuvres as there is deep concern in Tokyo that Kiribati, in particular, will suddenly start to receive vast amounts of Chinese money and that will influence the government there,” said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo.

“Japan has provided a lot of assistance to Kiribati in the years since its independence [in 1979] but I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that Japan is being defeated by China due to its linkage of diplomacy to aid.”

Concerns have grown about Beijing’s influence over Kiribati – a collection of 33 islands and atolls scattered across some 3.5 million sq km of ocean – since September 2019, when it switched diplomatic recognition away from Taipei, just months before fellow Pacific nation the Solomon Islands made a similar move.

Last year, a China-backed plan to upgrade an airstrip on Kiribati fuelled political divisions after opposition figures questioned Beijing’s intentions. The island nation’s government said the upgrade to facilities on Kanton – a coral atoll located about halfway between Fiji and Hawaii – was purely for civilian purposes and intended to boost transport links and tourism.