On Tuesday 14^th April Dr Graeme Smith of the ANU spoke to the AIIA on the topic “Prospects and perceptions of new Chinese investors in the Pacific”.

From the 19^th century onwards, when Chinese labourers were brought into the South Pacific by colonial powers to work on plantations, many reports wrote of their prospects as future citizens in approving terms, such as “assimilable stock”. Several of those early families remain and form much of the comfortable middle class in Pacific countries today.

Dr Graeme Smith explored more recent arrivals and showed that many came from the poor southern coastal province of Fujian. Many came as miners working for Chinese companies but many also came to establish new shops and businesses and hoped that they could make it as successful businesses. In his talk Dr Graeme Smith explored tensions in three sectors—resources, construction and retail—and the flows of labour that accompany the recent influx of Chinese outbound direct investment. For the last of these sectors, retail, the talk explored in detail the worldview of new Chinese migrants to the South Pacific, how they interact with different levels of the Chinese state and the host country, and how they saw their prospects for “assimilation” in Pacific Island countries. Interestingly many hoped to be “sojourners” who would one day return to Fujian but those hopes might be futile. Some got into difficulties and were a burden to their own Chinese Government, an embarrassment to earlier Chinese migrants and a source of hostility to local Island communities but some also assimilated, married into local communities and made good.

Report by Brian Everingham, vice president AIIA NSW

For an edited video of Dr Graeme Smith’s talk, please go to: https://www.facebook.com/aiiansw