Chinese police in Fiji nothing to do with Australia

Though Chinese scammers had faced court in Fiji before, in this case the legal system was bypassed, and the Fijian police were bystanders in what was, in effect, a show arrest. The video shows busts carried out simultaneously in Indonesia and other parts of China – the Nadi footage is identical to these other raids.

In this video, Fiji was treated as Chinese soil for a morality play, filmed for the benefit of the Chinese public, and more importantly, for the party bosses in China who signed off on the operation.

The implications of this operation for Fiji’s sovereignty are disturbing. Chinese police now appear to be a feature of the landscape in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and perhaps Vanuatu, while Fiji and Papua New Guinea have police liaison officers. It’s tempting to extrapolate from this that the Australian government should take a hard line and urge all Pacific nations to reject any form of police co-operation with China. Yet, this would almost certainly backfire. We know this because it already has.

In the Solomon Islands, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare made it clear that part of the reason he wanted security cooperation with China was Australia’s attitude that policing training “is ours”, tracing it all the way back to Alexander Downer’s refusal to allow Solomons police to be trained in Taiwan. Sogavare’s antipathy towards Australia has many other sources, but by making his enthusiasm for the security agreement about pushing back against Australia and the US, the idea has taken hold that these policing deals are about us. But they are not. They have nothing to do with Australian sovereignty.

These agreements are all about China’s domestic needs, and regulating Chinese citizens abroad. The broader trend is a concern for Australia, particularly in shielding our Chinese diaspora from coercion, but overall this is not about us.

Concerns that Pacific police will internalise authoritarian policing practices after a few weeks or months of training in China seem over-egged.

Another reason to think twice is that Australia itself cooperates extensively with China on policing. Less than a week ago, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw met Wang Xiaohong, China’s Minister of Public Security, with the China looking forward to a “a new chapter in law enforcement co-operation”.

China’s interest in Australia is unsurprising – plenty of those fleeing Xi Jinping’s endless anti-corruption campaign have come to our shores. But for Australia and Fiji, here’s the rub: we need to work with Chinese law enforcement to address transnational crime in the region. The drugs flowing from Asian and Mexican syndicates hurt the Pacific and Australia. Blocking China – which often characterises the US approach to China in the region – won’t work on this issue. Conversations about not violating the sovereignty of Pacific nations and bringing Chinese criminals to book need to be had with Chinese officials in the room.

They might not be keen on such conversations – particularly when some of the criminals are providing them with valuable networks and intelligence – but trying to have these conversations is a better idea than offending Fiji and China just to assert our will.

Graeme Smith is a senior fellow at ANU’s Department of Pacific Affairs.

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