All over the world China is investing heavily in order to secure supplies of essential raw materials. This ad-hoc programme is awkward for the rest of us because the government in Peking, ‘old friend’ though it is to we British, refuses, for good and honourable reasons by their own lights, to become involved with any discussions about the morality of the regimes with which it feels it must do business. However, I found myself a little baffled as to why China should assist the Cook Islands, and others, and invest in Government projects there, which, seemingly, have no conceivable benefit to China, until I consulted certain, very private, ‘old friends’ in Peking and Shanghai.

See the Cook Islands News in this article.

I understand from ‘old friends’ in Peking (yes, I use the old English version of the name for I am writing in English – get used to it – and mean no insult to my Chinese ‘old friends’) and Shanghai that such investments are being made routinely by China not just in Micronesia, but also throughout the Pacific. Obviously, China would not invest in such small countries with no obvious major resources unless some future need has been identified as being present in these small island states, so there has to be some resource which we in the West must have overlooked, or not found.

Worryingly, there are reports – not provable at the moment – that China is considering baling the Marshall Islands Government out of its current crisis.

The Marshall Islands declared a state of economic emergency Thursday afternoon to fast-track domestic energy reduction and cost cutting measures, while lending weight to appeals to donor countries for help. Despite three electricity tariff increases since January, “the national power utilities are projected to face an estimated shortfall of $17.5 million to $21 million over the next 12 months assuming the global trend continues,” said President Litokwa Tomeing in a nationally broadcast statement Thursday. This deficit amounts to close to 20 percent of the entire national budget. The Marshall Islands has enough diesel on island to keep the lights on until the end of August. But the Marshalls Energy Company has already warned Cabinet that it cannot come up with $8.5 million needed by next weekend to pay Seoul-based SK Networks for last month's diesel shipment and a down payment on the next shipment. If the Marshall Islands cannot come up with the money, the likelihood of power rationing - and the possibility of running out of fuel - is looming. In declaring the state of economic emergency, the government's Cabinet ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek funding help from the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, other diplomatic allies [my emphasis] and donor agencies for fuel to prevent a shut down of power services.

Why?