A major investigation by Australia’s Nine media organisation has revealed the shocking surrender of Fijian sovereignty to China under the Bainimarama government but also raises fresh questions about the conduct of the Coalition.
While the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, talks tough about not surrendering to Chinese pressure, there is an astonishing disconnect between the account he gives and that of the Home Affairs Minister, Pio Tikoduadua, about local cooperation with the Chinese authorities.
The Prime Minister tells the Nine newspapers – the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and the Nine television program 60 Minutes – that Fiji has scaled down security cooperation, including ending the practice of having members of the Chinese State Security organisation embedded in the Fiji Police. But Pio Tikoduadua directly contradicts him by saying the arrangement continues just as it did under the Bainimarama government.
What is the actual position? Who is speaking the truth here? Because it is disturbing, even alarming, that the two men who are charged with Fiji’s security are giving contradicting accounts of what is happening.
Is the Prime Minister pretending to the region and the world that Fiji is downscaling its entanglement with China when nothing of the sort is occurring? Why aren’t he and the Home Affairs Minister speaking with one voice? Is the Coalition government so dysfunctional that on a subject fundamental to national security and regional stability, the two most important figures charged with security can’t get their stories right?
Read on, Fiji, to be utterly appalled at the latitude China has been given. Nine’s top investigative reporter, Nick McKenzie, has obtained video of the shocking rendition of Chinese citizens from Fiji in 2017 that was carried out by the Bainimarama government without the knowledge of, and bypassing, the judiciary and the DPP. These people were just rounded up and put on a plane back to China by Chinese State Security officials assisted by the Fiji military and police.
But what is happening now is equally disturbing – strong evidence that the Coalition is saying one thing about scaling down its relationship with China in favour of stronger ties with the democracies and doing precisely the opposite by continuing the same policies as the pro-Chinese Bainimarama government, including having Chinese State Security personnel in the Fiji Police.
This is on top of the strengthening ties between China and the Great Council of Chiefs – including a high-level GCC delegation being feted in China – and the extraordinary private business relationship between the Minister for iTaukei Affairs, Ifereimi Vasu, and the convicted Chinese drug and people trafficker, Jason Zhong.
NOTE: Grubsheet will provide the link to tonight’s 60 Minutes report when it becomes available. We also understand this is just the first of Nine’s stories on Chinese influence in Fiji and there are further sensational revelations to come.
Thank you so much for the update.
Fiji is down on its knees begging for survival. The ever CORUPT RABUKA is as stubborn and thinks that Fiji belongs to him alone. The same was with BAINIMARAMA & Kaiyum.
These guys should face the firing squad. Fiji has suffered enough. ????????
If one is trying to avoid the Australian media focusing on what is currently going on in Fiji (constitution breaches, institutional racial cleansing etc.), then drag up an old story for some positive attention and chest pumping. Classic smokescreen and controlling of the narrative.
“Sad observer”, there is nothing “old” about the Coalition’s two most senior security ministers giving conflicting accounts of the true state of Fiji’s relations with China when it is the most important strategic issue in the region. Tonight’s 60 Minutes will also be the first time we have seen video footage of the Chinese raids on its citizens in Fiji and their forced removal from the country on a rendition flight facilitated by the Fiji police and military. Far from being a “smokescreen”, this is all highly revealing and of vital national interest. Of course, once again it is outsiders telling the story, not our supine and almost useless local mainstream media.
You’re absolutely right that it is a credible unreported story. I’m not asserting the story itself is a smokescreen, more that the timing to bring it out into the open now as a way of clouding over other stories the Fiji media have been keeping under wraps. I feel like Rabuka is trying to make himself out as a hero over calling China out on this at the moment, which is very convenient when he’s so desperate for credibility.
The fact of the matter is just one matter, that of visa free entry for Fiji citizens.
There are 3 white countries in the Pacific out of which France accords free entry to its 2 territories. British colonies still don’t give free access to their colonies.
Once that changes, China will no longer both the Pacific. Please talk to the house of Lords and the houses of the Antipodean parliament and China will disappear into oblivion. It’s just that one important matter . Invite us freely like we do or face the Asian threat. Period. Stop the white racist mischief. This is the year 2024 and not 1824.
Relevance, zero. Logic, not much better. Visa free entry for Fiji citizens has nothing to do with surrendering our sovereignty to the Chinese Communist Party.
Oh, sorry. We have to wait to the last line for the zinger. It is about “white, racist, mischief” from countries that give their citizens the vote rather than gangster states who impose their will on free-loving peoples.
If the latter is what you want, then we are on the path to getting it in Fiji. An accommodation with the Chinese Communist Party and its agents of influence in Chinese organised crime. If you think things are bad now, there is a lot worse to come.
Visa Free entry to Aust and NZ ? – there won’t be anyone left living in Fiji! And anyone who can’t afford the airfares may try the Fly Now and Pay Later scam.
If you wish to reciprocate and close your borders to All Whites and the Colonialists, then go ahead, do it. See how long the Fijian economy can sustain itself before you beg the tourists and Aid to come back. Wait – this happened in 2020 (Pandemic Lockdown). In 2024 yet we are being taken back to 1824 thinking!
The Chinese money requires no begging but it’ll put the fear of God into the antipodeans. Their last bastion of being treated like royals of an era long gone will be the result of no tourists from the antipodeas.
Remember, the AUKUS alliance was put together to thwart the Chinese from the Pacific. It doth seem that the Anglo Saxons’ sphincter is quivering at the thought of Chinese being in Fiji .
Your own sphincter would be quivering if you were smart enough to know the difference between life in a democracy and life under the Chinese Communist Party. But no chance of that.
GD and I have a gaping difference when it comes to Foreign policy of my country.
GD is with the fascist West, and bully for him.
The one example I give, not related to the fascist Wests endless illegal wars, is in regard to one Mr Julian Assange. A truth teller, like Jesus Christ, who is being given similar treatment but worse. His lack of freedom, health, and ultimately his blood is a stain on his country and the so called Democracies. What a joke ! GD, are you are journalist or propagandist ?
In relation to your attitude to China , either you have been brainwashed which is understandable since you live in the West and the relentless anti Russia ( Putin) and China ( Xi) propaganda or like nearly all of msm in the West you have taken the warning and example of what the fascist West owners have done to Julian and see there is not much profit questioning the blah blah blah.
Ian Simpson, there is something very wrong with you. Julian Assange is not Jesus Christ. He leaked US classified material under the false guise of being a journalist when he is not and is paying the price for breaking the law. He is facing a long jail term whereas in China, he would have been shot in the back of the head.
You are what Stalin called a “useful idiot” – someone who endorses totalitarianism because you are too stupid to understand the difference between totalitarian regimes in which individual rights are trampled and free societies like those in the West in which you have the inalienable right to be as stupid and misguided as you are here.
You are like some communist-loving jack-in-the-box who pops up like clockwork every time anyone expresses the opinion that Fiji should side with the great democracies rather than the great dictatorships. So it is you who is engaging in blah, blah, blah and in this instance, are a useful idiot of the Chinese Communist Party.
If you think it is OK for Fiji to allow a dictatorship to send its own stormtroopers to Fiji to round up anyone without recourse to the rule of law, then you are not only an imbecile but a dangerous one. Be careful what you wish for. When Fiji is under Xi Jin Ping’s boot, you won’t be sprouting such nonsense except as a servant boy of the Chinese.
Now run along and do a bit of reading about what the Chinese do to their own people who get in the way. If that’s your idea of the way OUR country, not yours (your arrogance is astonishing ) should conduct itself then you are on your own. 再见
Fascist West? Please look up a credible source again as a refresher on the meaning of the phrase “Fascist”. You are excused though because it is common in places to use words which sound good but don’t match the message!
The government where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
The people don’t know what promises will be broken and which fulfilled.
The poor don’t know where they will get the next meal from or what they wont be able to buy when shopping next.
The students dont know which subject teachers have migrated and wont be having classes on. Whether there will be a scholarship for them to study on post secondary school.
The drivers don’t know which new potholes have appeared overnight.
The public in general dont know if it’s their house that will be targeted by thieves that run rampant without any fear.
The Police that don’t even know the P in the word snd are peddling drugs themselves.
The PM that doesn’t know which minister is sleeping around with whom and who is lying to his face.
A country that doesn’t know its future, if its going to be bad or worst.
What the hell did we vote into parliament? It’s not a government, it’s a circus.
In today’s local media
The controversial policing agreement between Fiji and China has been reinstated, though with limitations.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka confirmed to FBC News that both countries have agreed to continue only certain aspects of the agreement.
Sunil, the news that it has been reinstated has not come from the Fijian media but the foreign media. And the fact that it has been confirmed today after it appeared overseas only serves to underline the fact that the Fijian people have been kept in the dark.
The Prime Minister has not denied that Chinese State Security personnel are again embedded in the Fiji police. And that is something that should be of concern to every Fiji.
Sitiveni Rabuka doesn’t seem to know what is going on. He told Nine Newspapers that Fiji has stepped back from its security arrangements with China only to be contradicted within hours by his Home Affairs Minister. What the hell is going on?
Let me tell you. At best a government that doesn’t speak with one voice. At worst, a conspiracy between the Coalition and the Chinese Communist Party to deceive the Fijian people and our democratic neighbours by pretending there has been a change of policy when there clearly has not.
A lot more to come on this story.
The sooner we have another election, the better. This government has lost its moral compass in almost every aspect of governance. It’s incredibly frustrating. We voted for change, but not this change. However, with our current politicians on both sides of parliament, including those criticizing from outside, it feels like choosing between Satan and Lucifer. They seem the same but different depending on which part of the story you’re in.
In a free and fair society, people have the right to be stupid if they so choose. It appears there are a lot of people in Fiji who make that choice and continue to do so. There are many in this forum who make that choice as well.
I am the first to defend the rights of such people.
But then, why do they complain so much after making these choices?
My mistake, when one is a fish in a fish bowl ( your blog) you don’t have a chance.
All your reasoning’s can be countered but there is no way you will allow.
As for JC and JA, both truth tellers. One killed, one in the process.
JA publishing law breaking by government is a legitimate “thing”. Breaking a law from 1915, a hundred year old law, is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. You could be put in jail for adultery back then, certainly for being gay – although gay meant something different back then..
The great Democracies ?!, what a laugh, with their war crimes, crimes against humanity and support of genocide. Their rules based order and flagrant breaking of International Law. BTW Stalin died 60 + years ago and Russia is not Communist. The Russian Federation and the people within that Federation occupy the largest land mass on the planet and it is a testament to their character, intelligence, and resolve to so far successfully hold against all the attacks from the fascist West who’s people are not the enemy but its owners. According to Mussolini, fascism is when big business owns the government.( In response to anonymous )
As for China and its CCP. Communism was one of humanities great trials in applying an ideology to real life governance. So there has been successes and failures. Stalin and Mao, were they aberrations ? Millions of pages written on them and their leadership. All from that time are dead. Russia has returned to character which I believe is “strong leadership”. Thank God they have Putin. The CCP, reverted to character, strong overwhelming Asian pragmatism, combined with intelligence, freed from overwhelming cultural barriers, has over time produced a nation of 1.4 billion people who are in harmony, with an overriding common goal to improve their lives. Some people get squished, that’s politics, right, like Julian Assange and Jesus Christ.
The propaganda merchants of the West harp about loss of freedoms and dictatorships in other countries, but a quick study of what is actually happening in the West, in so far as “our freedoms” , are fading fast.
Fiji government and Chinese government handled the situation perfectly under the circumstances. China , pragmatic to the core, dealt with the situation quickly and efficiently. Fiji had no hope of dealing with the situation and unless one wanted to put Fiji at risk of becoming the equivalent of a narco state, where the criminals gain power and influence enough to control government. We are still under threat, more so, but rather than from online fraudsters, real deal drug cartels.
Thank you CCP for working with us and keeping an eye on your citizens who might abuse our laws and take advantage of our easy ways.
Chinese government please excuse the West, their people are not bad, but they live in a Corporate Gulag, and as inmates, they are no more free than your citizens. Time will tell, but as dawn approaches, I put my money on China, Russia , the backbone of BRICS.
Ian, you really are an authoritarian stooge. I am not going to have a blow-by-blow engagement here with a prize dickhead with not even the most basic grasp of the facts. But if you think China’s influence in Fiji is benign, prepare to be shocked to the core. As I understand it, there is further information to come that will blow that idea right out of the water. We are being subverted by the PRC and its agents of influence with the connivance of some of our leaders. And that is something that poses a threat to the very foundations of the state.
Well said Graham.
China’s well known for spying on her innocent citizens under the pretext of ‘national security’. Same thing happening has been happening in Fiji. To what end though as it’ll keep blowing up in their faces.
Exposed! Vinaka GD
Let the likes of Ian huff & puff like mad wolves forever chasing their tails in cyberspace.
It’s not as if the Pacific region hasn’t seen the subversive tactics of the red dragon in collusion with complicit, greedy, corrupt PiPs (Peeps In Power)…
Thank goodness President Hilda Heini is back in charge to get things straight and back on course.
https://marshallislandsjournal.com/rasar-promoters-charged-in-alleged-bribery-scheme/
https://thefederalnewswire.com/stories/635796721-two-defendants-plead-guilty-to-conspiring-to-bribe-high-level-officials-of-the-republic-of-the-marshall-islands
https://www.pacificislandtimes.com/post/marshall-islands-politicians-implicated-in-rasar-scam-blacklisted-by-us
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/pacific/usban-marchall-officials-12142023025627.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/08/call-investigation-marshall-islands-chinese-couple-alleged-plot-mini-state
https://www.pacificislandtimes.com/post/just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg
China came so close to steal the cheese but because of public pressure had to back out
But they are patiently waiting for the right opportunity to snatch it up again.
This time through Australia’s foreign affairs. China tops the list in trade relations with Australia. Neighboring country New Zealand, is in the middle of the top 15 countries list. Fiji is nonexistent. Majority are Asian countries.
Rabuka is aware and has used the idiom – sleeping in the same bed with your enemy, once before. after he took hold of the country in 1987. He hasn’t changed in that regard. Only this time he has a weak link in Minister of Defence – Pio Tikoduadua.
So the military has taken over the Foreign diplomatic affairs. Australian Foreign Minister. Ms Wong has decided to marry her longtime lover in case she died if she reneged on her Chinese counterpart on Policing arrangements. China has more dollars to spend at Australia who is in indebted to China.
Fiji is not for Sale should be the loudest chants on the streets and on social media with a larger online community.
Ian,
Somehow you got the perfect blood line and are superior to everyone else. It doesn’t matter if you have lighter skin, or had better educational opportunities. You are just a person and in fact not better than your neighbours.
Please take a look at how you treat people.
Please be careful not to judge people based on where they are from or what they look like. You may have really hurt people making them feel less than. And for what? So you can feel intellectually superior? I’d rather be known for kindness.
Interestingly mentioned about the relationship between Jason Zhong and Minister Ifereimi Vasu, that bond was forged in prison for all places. Jason Zhong works for Zhao Fugang. Ifereimi Vasu gave them access to the GCC members. Another of Zhao Fugang’s Lieutenant is Kevin Ho who has the Minister of Local Government – Maciu Nalumisa by the throat. So Maciu gives the Chinese access and approvals to all municipalities – all towns in Fiji. So they can build anything in town boundaries. Kevin Ho sponsors Maciu’s lavish trips with his lasa-i-loma PA (personal assistant) who is acting like she controls the ministry.