PNG's Western partners might not want to share the bed with China but this is the current reality, and they should also be prepared to welcome others under the country's “friends to all, enemy to none” foreign policy stance.
olygamy, still practiced in some parts of Papua New Guinea (PNG), symbolized wealth and status in the country’s so-called “big man” culture. The greater the fortune a man accumulated, the more wives he could support, with each wife contributing to managing the family’s estate.
Also central to marriage is the bride price, such as monies, pigs and produce, exchanged in a ceremony to bring together the families of the bride and groom. It’s not always a one-way transaction, but nowadays is usually more onerous on the groom’s side.
In 2022, the director of PNG’s controversial Kikori Special Economic Zone, created with seed funding from Beijing, was asked if Australia or China was the preferred partner. The interview was for an Australian news article on the growing Chinese influence in PNG, particularly in the development of commercial ports, which some argue could serve dual civilian-military purposes.
He responded by referencing the PNG kastom that lingers in some parts, saying, “we come from a culture where you marry three or four wives”.
This metaphor suggests that PNG does not view its foreign partnerships as an either-or scenario. Consistent with its foreign policy of “friends to all, enemy to none”, PNG maintains multiple transactional relationships with Australia, China and other partners.
Despite its substantial natural resources, PNG does not seem to have the economic independence or prestige to support multiple such “marriages”. But what it lacks in immediate financial wealth, due to a plundering political elite, it makes up for with geostrategic significance on the crossroads between Asia and the Pacific.
There are many prospects. Traditional ally Australia, for instance, provides around US$400 million annually in loans to PNG to support its budget, with an additional $125 million now promised for law and order. The United States is expected to spend $864 million for security initiatives under the US-PNG defense cooperation agreement, while the European Union has allocated $25 million to anticorruption programs.
Furthermore, PNG has access to multiple regional funds committed by the same partners. In 2018 for example, Japan, the US, Australia and New Zealand collectively pledged $1.7 billion for PNG’s electricity infrastructure. These commitments were aimed at countering China’s growing involvement in areas such as electricity and internet connectivity.
However, according to the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map, Australia provided significantly more official development assistance to PNG than China between 2008 and 2022. During this period, Canberra pledged $12.8 billion and spent $11.7 billion, compared with $6.6 billion promised and $2.8 billion actually delivered by Beijing.
While these figures may appear generous, the competition between the West and China has led to the securitization of developmental assistance in recent years. For example, the $400 million Australia recently announced to fund PNG’s participation in the National Rugby League (NRL) includes an implicit condition: PNG must refrain from signing a security deal with China for the next 10 years or be ejected again.
Although the details of this agreement are not public, the funding arrangement relies on the leverage Australia can exert by withholding or distributing the funds in installments, enabling the use of a carrot and stick strategy. Alternatively, once a PNG team is in the NRL and if Australia were to kick it back out, that may end up as an own goal. No hearts and minds will be won by punishing the population of its nearest neighbor for the actions of their political elite.
Although such agreements may deter a formal security deal with China, they are unlikely to significantly diminish China’s influence in PNG. Chinese companies dominate the country’s construction sector, including work on most major infrastructure projects. Notably, many of these projects are financed by multilateral organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, predominantly funded by Western nations.
In an ironic twist, the West indirectly supports China’s presence in PNG through these multilateral initiatives, even as it actively seeks to curtail Beijing’s influence. There has also been a resulting steep increase in the number of Chinese small and medium-sized companies operating in PNG. Of the 1,800 foreign companies controlled by Chinese nationals or entities – almost double the number of Australian ones – less than 5 percent have more than 50 employees.
While it is improbable that PNG will sign a security agreement with China soon, the West cannot prevent China’s presence and growing clout in the country. China may not need to match the money the West spends in PNG, and may not even require a military base to exert influence. Through initiatives offered to PNG, such as preferential trade access ranging from coffee to fisheries products, China has already cemented significant economic ties.
Apart from the EU, which offers an interim Economic Partnership Agreement focused on tuna trade with PNG, no Western nation competing for an alliance has matched the breadth of the trade agreements provided by China.
While the West may not want PNG to add China to its family of partners, the reality is that this has already occurred, bringing its own strengths and qualities to contribute to the family’s overall wealth. And while the competition for influence keeps PNG looking like an attractive match, with new potential partners continually calling in on the Pacific, the existing ones might find themselves sharing the bed with even more.
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The writer is a doctoral student at the Australian National University and a former lecturer in political science at the University of Papua New Guinea. The views expressed are personal.
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