A Search for Coherence: The Belt and Road Initiative in the Pacific Islands

Abstract

In the summer of 2017, I sat down for a conversation with Zhang, a Chinese businessman, at his family-owned restaurant in Nadi, Fiji. Over lunch, I asked him to talk about his time as a migrant to Fiji since the mid-2000s. He explained how he had built successful restaurant and retail businesses and discussed his appreciation for the opportunity to create a life in Fiji. ‘The good relations between Fiji and China helped me get started here’, he said. Taking note of my interest in his comment, Zhang pressed on, ‘Of course, it took a lot of my hard work