The China Alternative

Book Launch and Panel Discussion
Presented by ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

9:30AM - 2:30PM Wednesday 25 May

Join us for the launch of The China Alternative: Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands (ANU Press 2021) edited by Graeme Smith from ANU's Department of Pacific Affairs and Terence Wesley-Smith from University of Hawaii at Mānoa's Center for Pacific Islands Studies. In this volume, 17 leading scholars based in Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and China analyse key dimensions of the changing relationship between China and the Pacific Islands and explore the strategic, economic and diplomatic implications for regional actors.

The book will be launched by Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, Leader of the Opposition, Parliament of the Republic of Vanuatu (via Zoom). The book launch will be followed by two panel discussions with chapter authors in conversational style, moderated by Terence and the ABC's Foreign Affairs (Asia Pacific) reporter Stephen Dziedzic. The panel discussions will focus on the future of Australia's Pacific engagement and foreground Pacific views of China's more intensive engagement with the region.

Speakers

• Hon Ralph Regenvanu

• James Batley

• Graeme Smith

• Terence Wesley-Smith

• Stephen Dziedzic

• Tarcisius Kabutaulaka

• Denghua Zhang

• Jessica Marinaccio

• Nic Maclellan

• Transform Aqorau

• Sandra Tarte

• Henryk Szadziewski

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Pacific Affairs, ANU and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is funded in part by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Pacific Research Program.

There will be a small reception with some light refreshments at the conclusion of the panel discussions.

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