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Paper short abstract

In this paper, we examine how the rise of China as both a geopolitical actor and development partner has impacted existing architectures of development in the PICs. By interrogating the perspectives of donors and recipients, we reveal the ongoing obfuscation of power in the changing landscape of dev

Paper long abstract

The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are considered the most aid-dependent countries in the world (World Bank, 2021) and are historically stereotyped as ‘small, weak, and fragile’, whilst being at the core of global ecological and geopolitical challenges. In this paper, we examine how the rise of China as both a geopolitical actor and development partner has impacted existing architectures of development in the PICs. By interrogating the perspectives of donors and recipients, we reveal the ongoing obfuscation of power in the changing landscape of development.

Our research is based on 32 original semi-structured interviews conducted in 2025 with diplomats, policy makers, politicians, civil society actors, and bureaucrats in Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.

We find that the geopolitical competition between OECD-DAC donors and China that plays out in development practice provides a site of resistance for PICs to negotiate within unequal global systems (Mawdsley, 2018). The PICs reject geopolitical meddling whilst demanding development support from all donors. Paradoxically, this demand is only possible through the geopolitical interests of the outside actors. On the other hand, we find that historical depolitisation of development within a new geopolitical landscape is diminishing Western donors’ influence in favour of China. This in turn explains contemporary trends in the PICs development space. The paper combines insights from development scholarship and IR with our own data to provide a valuable interdisciplinary contribution.