China and the ‘Pathway for the Development of Samoa'
What is Fei Mingxing's plan for Chinese engagement in Samoa?
Fei Mingxing was the first Chinese ambassador to take office in the year of 2024, arriving in Samoa on New Year’s Day. This is Fei's second posting to the South Pacific, having held a senior role at the Chinese Embassy in Fiji from 2006 to 2010. He also has experience working in Australia, the UK, and South Africa. For more information on Fei’s career, see his CV at the end of this article.
As a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Samoa forms part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) via the China-Oceania-South Pacific blue economic passage. In recent years, China has been seeking to increase its presence in the South Pacific, which has been cause for concern by the US and its allies.
Soon after his arrival in Samoa, Fei published an op-ed in the Samoa Observer titled ‘A shared future and a new chapter for China-Samoa relations’. Fei wrote that China ‘sincerely wishes to contribute more’ towards helping Samoa ‘realize the priorities’ of Samoa’s five-year National Plan, titled the ‘Pathway for the Development of Samoa'.
Samoa’s current five-year plan was launched in 2022 and lists 21 key priority areas, including social development, economic development, security, climate change, and infrastructure development.
If Fei Mingxing is planning to use Samoa’s five-year plan to frame and promote Chinese engagement, then, we as observers, can also use the plan to identify what Fei might be focusing on.
Prior to Fei’s arrival, China had already been engaged in several key priority areas of the five-year plan, including public health and agriculture. The purpose of this article is to focus on two other priority areas that could greatly increase China’s presence in the country, namely, tourism and infrastructure.
China-Samoa flights
The revitalisation of Samoa’s tourism industry is a key priority area of Samoa’s five-year plan. What role could China play in this revitalisation? By pushing for China-Samoa flights to be finally established, after many years of trying, Chinese tourists would be able to visit Samoa in far greater numbers.
From China’s perspective, Chinese tourism in Samoa could also make the country more susceptible to Chinese economic influence.
Over the years, several attempts have been made to establish flights from China, however, as it stands, there are currently no regular flights taking place.
The saga began in 2016 when China and Samoa signed an agreement that would allow for Chinese airlines to operate services to Samoa.
Initially, there was talk about starting with charter flights. In March 2019, it was announced that the first charter flight from China to Samoa was set to happen on 1 July that year, however, there is no evidence to suggest the flight ever took place.
During the pandemic, Samoa’s border closure from March 2020 to August 2022 made flights from China impossible. Chao Xiaoliang, who was Fei Mingxing’s predecessor, had not forgotten about the original agreement, however, writing in November 2021 that he hoped a direct flight could be established once the borders reopened.
In March 2023, the Hong Kong-based firm Travel Focus was appointed to help market Samoa as a travel destination in Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China, with Samoa Royal Tours operating as the local agent. A series of weekly tours were planned to start in May, with Hainan Airlines set to operate charter flights directly from Haikou, China.
The first of these flights landed on 28 May, and it was heralded as the first direct flight from China to Samoa.
These tours were short lived, however, with just two being completed before the rest were postponed. The main reason given was that the frequency of the tours exceeded the number of charter operations allowed per month, as stipulated by Samoa’s civil aviation regulations.
In addition to this, it was revealed that the local operator (Samoa Royal Tours) was owned by the children of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, La’auli Leuatea Schmidt, and that the company had only been incorporated just weeks before the tours began. This drew a lot of criticism on social media.
In response, the Samoan government reportedly severed ties with Travel Focus.
As it stands, word is that Hainan Airlines applied for a Foreign Air Operating Certificate in June 2023. This is according to Samoa’s Transport Minister, Olo Fiti Va’ai, who later claimed that flights would resume in September. These flights did not materialise, however.
Moving forward, in order to unlock the potential of Chinese tourism in Samoa, Fei Mingxing will want to finally resolve the issue of flights once and for all, starting with finding out what happened to Hainan Airlines’s certification. Direct flights would also have the added benefit of making it easier to transport Chinese workers to Samoa for infrastructure projects.
Secure a deal to redevelop the Asau Port
Another key priority of Samoa’s five-year plan is the upgrade of its wharf facilities and improvement of sea transport links. Currently, Samoa is exploring the prospect of redeveloping its wharf in Asau into a multipurpose transshipment port.
Until mid-2021, it appeared as if China was set to build a new port for Samoa in the Bay of Vaiusu. However, a change in government led to the project being shelved. Opponents said that the proposed scale of the port was beyond the needs of the country and that the nearly USD$100m price tag could not be justified. According to a World Bank database, in 2021, Samoa already owed China USD$161m from previous loans.
One major opponent of the Vaiusu Port Project was future-Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, mostly because of the scale and cost of the project. Another critic of the project, Samoan MP Faumuina Wayne Fong, went so far as to suggest that China was intending to also use the port for military purposes. This was denied by the Chinese embassy.
As expected, after taking office, Fiame put an end to the Vaiusu Port Project.
Several months after the launch of Samoa’s five-year plan in 2022, Fiame’s government announced that it had decided to revisit plans to redevelop Samoa’s Asau Port on Savai'i island, with the intention of making it a transshipment port and a backup international port.
Under the previous government, China had been involved with a plan to develop the Asau Port. This was first reported on in The Australian in 2018, which stated that ’discussions were under way with China to bankroll the redevelopment and expansion of the Asau Port’.
The project has struggled to progress beyond the planning stage, however, with the timeline progressing as follows:
In 2019, China and Samoa signed an Exchange of Letters to undertake a feasibility study for dredging the Asau Port.
In 2020, it was confirmed that Samoa had submitted a request for China to fund a project to redevelop the wharf in Asau and were waiting the result of the feasibility study, which had been delayed by border closures.
When Prime Minister Fiame shelved the Vaiusu Port Project in 2021, the status of the Asau Port Project was not mentioned.
In September 2022, it was reported that Samoa was revisiting the Asau Port redevelopment and that Samoa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was seeking funding for the project.
In March 2023, the Samoan government said that it was still committed to the redevelopment plans, but this was dependent on being able to secure funding.
In June 2023, Samoa launched its Transport and Infrastructure Sector Plan 2023-2028, which revealed that Samoa would conduct a feasibility study on future port developments, including an alternative international port, suggesting the Asau Port redevelopment was still in the planning stage.
It is not clear whether China is involved with Samoa’s renewed interest in the Asau Port redevelopment. However, considering that, in 2022, Samoa and China signed an Economic & Technical Cooperation Agreement ‘for projects to be determined’, China’s participation is certainly possible.
Given that the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is currently contracted for an Asian Development Bank-backed upgrade of Samoa’s main port in Apia, it is also possible that CHEC has already thrown its hat into the ring for the Asau Port redevelopment.
The moment any Chinese involvement is announced, however, concerns will once again be raised about the port’s potential use by China’s navy. Many people suspect that China is seeking a military foothold in the South Pacific, and a redeveloped Asau Port could be an appealing choice.
Would Samoa allow China’s PLA Navy to use the Asau Port in exchange for helping fund the redevelopment? Whilst the offer may be tempting, it seems unlikely. It is known that Prime Minister Fiame is apprehensive about giving China too much influence in Samoa, and allowing for Asau to become a dual-purpose facility would sail Samoa straight into China’s sphere of influence.
In short, direct flights from China and the Asau Port redevelopment are just two ways China can use the ‘Pathway for the Development of Samoa' to frame and promote Chinese engagement in the country. Both of which would also help China increase its influence there.
Whilst Fiame’s government has been fairly wary of growing Chinese influence, she has not completely shut the door on cooperation. It will, therefore, be Fei’s job to increase bilateral engagement back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Fei Mingxing (费明星)
Career (past 20 years):
2003 - 2005: First Secretary, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
2005 - 2006: Consul, Chinese Consulate in Brisbane
2006 - 2010: Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission, Chinese Embassy in Fiji
2010 - 2015: Counselor and Division Director, Consular Department, MFA
2015 - 2018: Counselor | Minister Counselor, Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom
2018 - 2023: Chinese Consul General in Durban, South Africa
2023: Counselor, Consular Department, MFA
2024 - Present: Chinese Ambassador to Samoa
Education:
Studied English at Southwest Normal University (1984 - 1988)
See his full CV up to 2018 here (written in Mandarin).
Other sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5