In relation to
headlines last week that Vanuatu has been discussing with China the issue of building (a, or some) Chinese bases on Vanuatu. Vanuatu and China on Tuesday 17 April 2018 denied the base intention rumours. On 19 April 2018 Vanuatu's Prime Minister
assured Australia's Prime Minister that there were no basing intentions. The interesting map below has been made public.
See much larger image of map
here. Map courtesy Australian Department of Defence and
International
Maritime Bureau a specialised division of the International Chamber
Of Commerce.
The above map's key, on upper right corner, indicates:
- Blue dots are US overseas bases (some US facilities in Singapore). These established, very large
bases, underline how powerful the US presence has been since the 1940s.
- Magenta dots are Chinese bases in China
- Purple dots are Australian bases in Australia
- Also note
Magenta Circles are Chinese influenced dual-use ports (bases to be?) in Indian Ocean
at:
= Gwadar (Pakistan)
= Hambantota (Sri Lanka)
= Chittagong (Bangladesh), and
= Sittwe (Myanmar)
= No mention of Maldives.
= there's a missing deep water port that China is building
in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
= China will probably be building a future strategically important
Kra (or Thai) Canal to bypass
the already congested and Western dominated Straits of Malacca.
There is a missing deep water port that China is building
in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Putting this in perspective, China will be building
the Kra canal at some point in time to bypass the Straits of Malacca.
India's main bases (on
Western Naval Command, Mumbai and
Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam) are not identified.
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Question - Might tiny Vanuatu ($114 million Chinese loan money wharf) and (for that matter East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji) be added not as a bases, but as further Magenta Circled Chinese influenced dual-use ports in years to come?
An interesting response to such a question comes from
On April 14, 2018 an Anonymous provided some
interesting insights:
[Re Pete saying] "'Such
pressure may fall on East Timor'
[Anonymous says]
No. The new Timor Sea treaty binds Dili to Australia and
virtually ensures ET will become a military ally and protectorate. The
concessions given would've been nonsensical otherwise.
re Vanuatu. China got a foothold in Vila by funding the
Melanesian Spearhead [1]. West Papua and Kanaky [2] are aspiring nations. This gives
China enormous potential leverage. An independent Kanaky or West Papua would
need to repay China for support during the struggle.
Neither Indonesia nor
Australia would tolerate a Chinese base in E.Timor, nor Chinese interference in
West Papua via Vanuatu. The interests of Canberra and Jakarta may be converging
in a manner that may yet see Jakarta's long standing neutrality up for review.
4 November 2018 at which voters will be given the choice of remaining joined to France or becoming an independent country. Do most oppose independent Kanaky?
And finally Chinese aid to Pacific islands and to East Timor above (cumulative figures 2006-2016). Australia is the
largest donor to the region including Vanuatu,
but China is rising as the "loaner" and donor
that doesn't instruct how money should be used. (Map courtesy
Lowy Institute via
DEVPOLICYBLOG, April 11, 2018)
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Pete Comment - There are so many issues with China's rise in the broader region that it is easy to forget the concerns of Pacific islands.
Pete