ONLY ON AP China's aid threatens Tonga's future

Описание: (10 Jul 2019) China is pouring billions of dollars in aid and low-interest loans into the South Pacific, and even in the far-flung kingdom of Tonga there are signs that a battle for power and influence among much larger nations is heating up.
In this South Pacific archipelago, government officials work in a shiny new office block that was an 11 million (US dollar) gift from China.
Dozens of bureaucrats take all-expenses-paid training trips to Beijing each year.
After Cyclone Gita destroyed Tonga's historic Parliament House last year, the government first suggested China might like to pay to rebuild it.
Then Australia and New Zealand stepped in and are now considering jointly funding the project.
And China has laid out millions of dollars to bring Tongan athletes and coaches to a training camp in China's Sichuan province.
Tevita Fauonuku, the country's head athletic coach, noted that China provides his athletes with accommodations, meals and per diems during the training trips.
China also offered low-interest loans after pro-democracy rioters destroyed much of downtown Nuku'alofa in 2006, and analysts say those loans could prove Tonga's undoing.
The country of 106,000 people owes about 108 million (US dollars) to China's Export-Import bank, equivalent to about 25% of GDP.
Some worry the loans will become debt traps if the nation can't repay.
China's ambassador to Tonga, Wang Baodong, said China has only benevolent intentions in Tonga and no hidden agenda.
Experts say the South Pacific could be important to China's navy or coveted for its fisheries, seabed minerals and natural resources.
China is also engaged in an ongoing effort to lure away the few remaining countries that recognise Taiwan instead of China - several of them Pacific island nations.
Teisina Fuko, a 69-year-old former parliament member, suspects China finds his country's location useful.
He called it a "stepping stone" to New Zealand and Australia.
An unintended consequence of Tonga's China loans could be a reduction in foreign investment and withering of the revenues needed to pay them back.
Take the Scenic Hotel. One of the few large hotels on the main island of Tongatapu, it abruptly closed its doors in March in a setback to the key tourism industry.
Brendan Taylor, managing director of the New Zealand-based Scenic Hotel Group, said a major factor for the closure was the new Foreign Exchange Control Act Tonga introduced last year.
Designed to keep money in the country and protect its currency during financial emergencies, it was enacted as Tonga prepared to begin making the Chinese loan repayments.
For Ola Koloi, who runs a tourist lodge, China's footprint is too pervasive, influencing what she can buy since so many goods for sale come from China.
She said the loans to China should worry every Tongan.
"I feel like I'll be Chinese soon," she said.

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