IB2015/70 China's Blue Book of Oceania

The Chinese governments interest in Oceania bumped up another notch with the recent publication of the books second edition. Blue Books are made available to all government departments, stocked in Xinhua Bookstores across China, and are seen as the standard reference on any given topic. This edition, subtitled Chinas 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative and the South Pacific Countries (Yu 2015), reveals how far Chinese academic and government thinking on the Pacific has come in recent years. This In Brief describes findings on aid, trade and investment, and diplomacy that should be of interest to Australian policy-makers.