Excerpt from asiatimes.com
While China’s growing presence in the developing world has stoked fears in Western media, coverage of the country’s quiet but rapid insertion into the affairs of the Pacific Island nations has been scarce. Why is an economic heavyweight like China interested in cultivating ties with the remote and thinly populated island nations of the Pacific Ocean?
The answer is that Beijing views the region as rife with commercial, diplomatic, and geo-strategic opportunities.
One such opportunity is found off the coasts of the islands. The nations of this region possess exclusive economic zones (EEZs) that encompass a combined 19 9 million square kilometers of ocean water. This matters because China’s own fishing areas have been severely depleted from years overfishing and other unsustainable practices.
With skyrocketing seafood prices at home, Chinese fishermen have turned to operating illegally in other nations’ EEZs, sometimes traveling as far as Argentina in search of tuna and other commodities.
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