ABSTRACT
Oceania plays a curious role in Chinese foreign policy. It is simultaneously an area beyond China’s strategic periphery and yet contains one of its major trading partners (Australia) and the first Western country with which it signed a free trade agreement (New Zealand). Within the Foreign Ministry of China this region is linked with North America, increasing its importance to Chinese policymakers. On the far side of the region lies South America, another part of the world in which China is taking a particular interest. Oceania is therefore both a region of interest to China—in and of itself—as well as a potential link to both North America and South America.
