The CCP Takes Its Party Act to the Pacific — Last Week in the Pacific
China’s Pacific embassies marked the PLA’s 99th anniversary last week with receptions across the region.
In Fiji on 17 July, Chargé d’Affaires Wang Yuan hosted more than 160 guests, including Defence Minister Pio Tikoduadua. Defence Attaché Senior Colonel Zhang Yu described China as Fiji’s important defense and security partner.
In Papua New Guinea on 21 July, Ambassador Yang Xiaoguang and Defence Attaché Senior Colonel Jiang Tuan hosted roughly 200 guests. Jiang used the occasion to brief attendees on Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military and the Global Security Initiative—delivering ideological content to a foreign audience under the cover of a military anniversary reception.
In Tonga on 23 July, the reception drew both the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Lord Fakafanua.
Summary of PRC Activity
Chinese officials held party-to-party meetings with Pacific political leaders across the region. At least 130 Pacific Islanders attended six Chinese training programs. Embassies in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga marked the PLA’s 99th founding anniversary.
(Source: Solomon Islands Government Communication Unit)
This Week’s Big Themes:
The CCP Comes to the Pacific
Chinese diplomats engaged Pacific political parties across three countries last week through both the CCP’s International Liaison Department and direct ambassador-to-party outreach.
On 24 July, Deputy Director General of the CCP’s International Liaison Department (ILD), Zhao Hongtao, led a delegation to Honiara and met with Finance Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo—the first ILD visit to a Pacific Island country this monitor has recorded. Zhao offered not just exchange but direct assistance to “support party development in the Solomon Islands.” Lilo, himself a party leader, acknowledged the two sides’ differences while stating that the Solomon Islands could still “learn from the success of the [CCP] in governing and building China.”
The same day in Port Vila, Ambassador Li Minggang visited the headquarters of Vanuatu’s Rural Development Party for a party-to-party exchange with RDP President Jay Ngwele and Secretary General Gracia Shadrack. Li delivered remarks on Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building; Ngwele aligned the RDP’s grassroots platform with the CCP’s “people-centered approach.” The visit illustrates Chinese ambassadors’ dual roles as representatives of both the PRC state and the CCP.
In Fiji, local press reported that six members of the governing People’s Alliance Party traveled to Beijing, where they studied poverty reduction models at the International Poverty Reduction Center and met with ILD Vice-Minister Lu Kang. Separately, a Fijian parliamentary delegation led by Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure attended the fourth Seminar for Members of Parliament of Pacific Island Countries, opened by NPC Standing Committee Vice Chairman Peng Qinghua. This monitor identified no other reporting on other countries’ participation in either event.
Supporting Events
- Solomon Islands: Minister Lilo Meets with ILD
- Vanuatu: Li Minggang Engages Rural Development Party
- Fiji: People’s Alliance Party Beijing Delegation
- Fiji: People’s Alliance Party ILD Meeting
- Fiji: Fijian Delegation to Pacific MPs Seminar
Seminar Season Continues
China hosted at least 130 Pacific Islanders across six programs last week. As noted above, forty parliamentarians and legislative officials from ten countries attended the MPs seminar in Beijing. Thirty-four trainees from seven countries—including five Tongan fire officers—began a 14-day course on climate change and disaster risk management. More than 50 participants from all nine Pacific Island countries hosting Chinese missions convened at Wuyi University in Jiangmen for a 10-day disaster prevention workshop. Smaller cohorts trained in women’s digital technology, youth friendship exchange, and civil society leadership.
The Wuyi workshop demonstrates how China’s Pacific multilateral bodies operate on the ground. The China–Pacific Island Countries Center for Disaster Risk Reduction Cooperation hosted the event; Wuyi University, a provincial institution, organized it. Nearly every official on the program came from Guangdong—the provincial emergency management, meteorological, earthquake, water resources, and grain reserve administrations, the provincial foreign affairs office, and Jiangmen’s executive deputy mayor. The curriculum presents China’s national disaster prevention policy framework, then draws on Guangdong for case studies.
China also convened a China–Pacific Island Countries Disaster Management Liaison Meeting alongside the workshop, where participants discussed a platform for multilateral exchange and cooperation. Whether China can turn the center into a regional body with genuine Pacific commitment is unclear—the Pacific Response Group already fills a similar role.
Supporting Events
- Fiji: Parliamentary Delegation Attends Beijing Seminar
- Tonga: Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Seminar
- Regional: Disaster Prevention Workshop and Focal Points Meeting
- Tonga: TCFA Delegation to Young Leaders Seminar
- Tonga: TWICT Members at Digital Technology Seminar
- Vanuatu: Students Attend Shanghai Youth Friendship Camp
* The PRC Pacific Embassies Monitor provides systematic, open-source tracking of Beijing’s public diplomatic activities across the nine Pacific Island Countries hosting Chinese missions. The monitor captures official embassy social media and website posts, supplemented by local sources, to offer a weekly structured intelligence report that bridges critical information gaps on regional engagement.