2024 ANU CHINA IN THE WORLD FORUM
Great Power Competition and Pacific Islands’ Responses

The Pacific region is now a new focus of the US-China geostrategic competition. The China-Solomon Islands Security Agreement has exemplified China's growing presence in the region and exacerbated the US' concerns about China's strategic intensions and influence. This session will discuss the great power competition in policy areas including aid, trade, security, climate change and other policy areas in the region. It will also explore responses from the Pacific Island states. Specifically, the panellists will highlight vulnerabilities, opportunities, resilience of these smaller states, and understand their perceptions of the great powers.'

Speakers:

James Batley, Distinguished Policy Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU.

Prior to joining ANU he had a long career in government. From 1997-1999 he was Australia’s High Commissioner to Solomon Islands. From 1999-2002 he was the head of Australia’s diplomatic mission in East Timor, becoming Australia’s first Ambassador to East Timor following that country’s independence in 2002. From 2004-2006 he served as the leader of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands and from 2007-2009 he was Australian High Commissioner to Fiji. In Canberra Mr Batley worked in a range of senior positions including Deputy Director-General of the Australian Agency for International Development and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Denghua Zhang, Research Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU.

His research focuses on Chinese foreign policy, foreign aid and China-Pacific relations. He has published with esteemed journals such as Third World Quarterly, Australian Journal of International Affairs, The Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. His article ‘China's influence and local perceptions: the case of Pacific island countries’ won the Boyer prize as the best article of Australian Journal of International Affairs for 2022. His book A Cautious New Approach: China’s Growing Trilateral Aid Cooperation is among the ANU Press’ top ten new releases for 2020.

Henrietta McNeill, Research Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU.

Her research focus is Pacific regional security, particularly transnational crime, criminal deportations, border security, citizenship, and security cooperation. She completed her PhD at the Australian National University on criminal deportations to the Pacific Islands region in 2023. She was a 2021-22 Fulbright scholar visiting the University of Hawai’i, UCLA, and Lewis and Clark Law School (Oregon); and was named a La Trobe Indo-Pacific Emerging Leader in 2021. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume 'Power and influence in the Pacific Islands: Understanding statecraftiness' (under contract with Routledge, due 2024).

Sarina Theys, Lecturer, University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

Her research interests include international relations, security and political power of non-Western small states and Pacific island states, and environmental and climate change in the Pacific. Her research has been published in International Affairs, International Environmental Agreement: Politics, Law and Economics, Journal of International Affairs and the Comparative Law Journal of the Pacific. Her forthcoming book The Soft Power of Non-Western Small States. The Cases of Bhutan and Qatar will be published by Routledge.

Chair

Graeme Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU

His research explores PRC investment, migration, aid, crime, and extraterritoriality in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. He is the co-author of The China Alternative: Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands. His work is published in The Australian Journal of International Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Pacific Affairs and The China Journal. He is the winner of best article prizes in The Journal of Pacific History and The China Quarterly. He co-hosts the awarding-winning Little Red Podcast, edits The China Story and also has a doctorate in inorganic chemistry.

Light refreshment provided.

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