China, Pacific Geopolitics, and Aussie Aid Views "Penny-Pinching"

China and the Geopolitics of the the Pacific Islands 

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Joanne Wallis, Senior Lecturer, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, writes:
  
Australian debates about the geopolitics of the Pacific islands in many ways represent the broad contours of discussions about Australia’s foreign and strategic policy, notably our relations with China. It’s possible to identify two dominant perspectives in these debates.

The first concerns the risk that, over the coming decades, a potentially hostile China establishes a strategic foothold in the Pacific islands from which it could threaten Australia. Preventing this has been identified as one of Australia’s primary strategic interests for the past 30 years.