Pacific nation Kiribati’s pro-China government faces election test

Pacific nation Kiribati will begin voting in a general election this week, a poll that will test the strengthening ties between China and the government of the climate-threatened archipelago.

The vote on Wednesday in tiny Kiribati – a country of scattered atolls and islands – has the potential to stir ripples across the South Pacific.

Kiribati is considered strategic despite being small, because it is relatively close to the US state of Hawaii and controls more than 3.5 million sq km (1.4 million sq miles) of Pacific Ocean.

Kiribati has drawn closer to China under long-time President Taneti Maamau, who is looking to extend his almost 10-year stint in charge.

In February, Reuters reported that Chinese police had begun working in Kiribati, a sensitive issue for neighbour the United States, which signed a 1983 treaty providing for consultation before Kiribati allows third-party military use of its islands.

China’s police force donated riot control gear last month, pledging to “solidify collaboration in law enforcement and policing”, the Kiribati police said in a statement on Facebook.

“What China is doing is normalising its presence in the region,” said Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Blake Johnson.

“We haven’t seen any kind of agreement that shows what they are doing there or how many there are,” he said.

“So it’s all a mystery.”

Meanwhile, a US request to establish an embassy has stalled.

In the past five years, Kiribati’s Pacific neighbours, Solomon Islands and Nauru, have also switched diplomatic recognition to China.

The low-lying nation meanwhile faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as the rising sea levels that now regularly taint scarce drinking water supplies.

With waves already encroaching