ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how Pacific Island countries (PICs) have responded to China's statecraft. While there are studies of how certain PICs have responded to the material aspects of China's statecraft, this chapter turns its attention to how they have interpreted, adopted, and/or instrumentalised one of China's most important soft power tools of statecraft: strategic narratives. Based on case studies of Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Samoa, this chapter argues that while Fijian, Solomon Islands, and Samoan leaders have, at times, incorporated elements of China's strategic narratives into their discourse when justifying their foreign policies, they have done so using their own interpretations and, at times, instrumentalised those narratives for their own purposes. This suggests that narrative power is more limited than it is often assumed, although it may have indirect effects, with China's narratives in the Pacific Islands region, as well as their instrumental adoption by PICs, motivating changes in the policies and narratives of metropolitan powers.
