China's 'COVID-19 Diplomacy' and Geopolitics in Oceania

The COVID-19 pandemic started at a time of intense geopolitical competition; consequently, global powers have used pandemic-related assistances to enhance their influence. This has been dubbed "COVID-19 diplomacy," a variant of global health diplomacy that involves the provision of assistance to address a health crisis while simultaneously enhancing and strengthening a country's geopolitical alliances and influence. The countries at the center of this ongoing geopolitical contest are the People's Republic of China (hereafter referred to as China) and the United States (U.S.) and its allies. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oceania¹ has become an arena where global powers have jostled to assert their influence.

This paper discusses how China has used the pandemic to assert its influence in Oceania and the responses from traditional powers in the region, led by the U.S. and Australia. In the past decade-and-a-half, China has become increasingly influential in Oceania. Most Pacific Island governments welcome this, as demonstrated by the fact that ten of the fourteen Pacific Island countries now recognize the one-China policy. This threatens the dominance that the US and its allies have had in the region since World War II, hence triggering the aforementioned geopolitical competition. Since the beginning of the pandemic, metropolitan powers have used COVID-19-related assistance to increase and affirm their influence. But while the US and its allies portray China as a threat, island governments view a relationship with China as an opportunity.

Although China's COVID-19-related assistance has so far been smaller in monetary value compared to aid from Australia and the U.S., it has been more visible because of Beijing's concerted efforts in public relations. It is, however, uncertain if this will result in long-term geopolitical gains for Beijing, especially given the fact that Western countries are strengthening their influence. Furthermore, while Pacific Island governments each value their respective relationship with Beijing because they see it as an additional source of assistance to address the economic, social, and health-related impacts of the pandemic, their citizens are more cautious, if not skeptical, about their government's relationship with China.

The paper is divided into three parts. First, it provides a broad overview of Beijing's global response to the pandemic, focusing especially on its attempts to create alternative narratives about its handling of the virus and to use its assistance to craft an image of China as a responsible and benevolent country and global leader. Second, it discusses China's response to the pandemic in Oceania and the reactions of traditional development partners and Pacific Islanders. Third, it provides concluding remarks, highlighting the geopolitical implications of China's COVID-19 diplomacy.

China's COVID-19 diplomacy

The SARS-CoV-2 virus or novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in late 2019. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic. By the end of March 2021, over 2.8 million people world-wide had died from the virus, with over 128 million infections and rising. The U.S. became the epicenter with 550,000 deaths and over 30 million cases.² By the beginning of May 2021, the epicenter of the pandemic had shifted to India, which had more than 4,000 daily fatalities and 400,000 daily infections.³ By mid-July 2021, there were over 186 million confirmed cases and over 4 million deaths worldwide.⁴ The economic, political, and social fallouts were also devastating.

China found itself in a negative spotlight as the origin of the virus and for its lack of transparency in sharing information that could have helped contain it. The COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse social and economic impacts tarnished China's image as a global economic power with an increasing geopolitical influence, threatened President Xi Jinping's and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) domestic reputation, and raised questions about the brand of economic development that Beijing exports globally, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).⁵ Internationally, the U.S...