{"id":95702,"date":"2023-09-03T11:31:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T16:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=95702"},"modified":"2023-09-03T11:31:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T16:31:34","slug":"95702","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=95702","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

In China\u2019s shadow, U.S. rushes back to neglected Indian Ocean island<\/a><\/p>\n

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MAHE ISLAND, Seychelles \u2014 At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force tracking station that monitored Soviet satellites from this island\u2019s soaring tropical forests was a focus of Seychelles life. The American servicemen and technicians living nearby hosted barbecues and bar nights to which all Seychellois were invited, distributed cookies and milk to local children and taught them basketball.<\/p>\n

Then, the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union collapsed and in 1996 the Americans left, dismantling the tracking station and shutting down their embassy \u2014 citing budgetary reasons for abandoning what had seemingly become an irrelevant corner of the world.<\/p>\n

Today, the compound where Americans and Seychellois partied is home to the Seychelles Tourism Academy, where young islanders training to be tour guides, hoteliers and masseuses take classes, among other subjects, in Chinese \u2014 just one small manifestation of a new geopolitical rivalry that has now lured the Americans back.<\/p>\n

In June, Seychelles became the latest in a string of small nations around the world in which the United States has established, restored or is planning to open an embassy as part of a broad pushback against the influence China has acquired during more than two decades of neglect or disinterest on the part of the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

In China\u2019s shadow, U.S. rushes back to neglected Indian Ocean island<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

All are in small islands that had been judged insufficiently strategic by Washington to merit the cost of maintaining a diplomatic presence, including Seychelles, Tonga and the Solomon Islands, where embassies have been opened this year, and Maldives, Vanuatu and Kiribati, where embassies are planned, according to the State Department.<\/p>\n

Seychelles offers an example of the ways America\u2019s absence opened the door to Chinese influence. In the 27 years since the United States pulled out, China has built schools, hospitals, houses for low-income families and public amenities, winning sympathy among Seychellois who felt abandoned by the U.S. departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do the little things that America doesn\u2019t do. This is where the Americans are weak. There is nothing we can say America built,\u201d said Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan in an interview. \u201cThis is why countries like China have come in, because there was a vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"China<\/a><\/p>\n

China in the process of completing a new headquarters for the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation, which will more than double the network\u2019s space, on the island of Mahe.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Chinese worker at the site of the new Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation building.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Chinese worker works at the construction site of the new building of the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Seychelles officials say they are delighted to have the Americans back but also recognize that China is likely the main reason for the return, potentially pulling Seychelles into the big power rivalry.<\/p>\n

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\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

In China\u2019s shadow, U.S. rushes back to neglected Indian Ocean island<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Provided by The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe cannot say we are naive. We do understand the competition going on. In the Cold War we had the United States and the Soviet Union and now it is the United States and China,\u201d Seychelles Foreign Minister Sylvestre Radegonde said in an interview. \u201cSomeone woke up and realized how important it is to counter the Chinese influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States now has ground to make up, he said. \u201cWhen you are late at a party, the party starts without you, so you have to make up time. It\u2019s a fact that China has been a long time here. They have a lot of sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the new embassies are in the Pacific, a strategic priority for China. The return to Seychelles underlines how the Indian Ocean is also emerging as an arena of competition between Washington and Beijing.<\/p>\n

U.S. and China battle for influence in Pacific island nations<\/a><\/p>\n

Bordered across a vast area by Africa, Australia, India and the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean is one of the world\u2019s most strategically vital waterways, the transit point for 80 percent of global seaborne trade \u2014 which in turn accounts for more than 80 percent of all trade, according to the Carnegie Endowment\u2019s\u00a0Indian Ocean Initiative<\/a>\u00a0and the International Chamber of Shipping. Crucially, China relies on it for 80 percent of its energy supplies.<\/p>\n

As Washington\u2019s attention strayed, Beijing\u2019s involvement in the region intensified. In 2017, China located\u00a0its first overseas military facility in Djibouti<\/a>, on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean. In a 2020 report, the Defense Department identified five Indian Ocean countries among a dozen locations where China has \u201clikely\u201d considered opening further bases, including Seychelles.<\/p>\n

China is also the only country to have maintained diplomatic missions in all six of the Indian Ocean island nations that until recently were represented by three U.S. embassies, noted Darshana Baruah, who heads Carnegie\u2019s Indian Ocean Initiative.<\/p>\n

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\"China<\/a><\/p>\n

China built the stately white-pillared National Assembly building and the adjoining Supreme Court, both important symbols of the country\u2019s identity as a nation.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Top Chinese officials regularly visit \u2014 China\u2019s President Hu Jintao called Seychelles \u201ca shining pearl\u201d during a stop in 2007, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi was here in 2021, describing Seychelles as \u201can important member of the big family of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the new U.S. Embassy in Seychelles was launched in June, Richard Verma, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, became the most senior U.S. government official to visit the nation since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials like to note the contrast.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur foreign policy is to treat every country, big or small, as an equal,\u201d said Mu Jianfeng, China\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires in Seychelles. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they closed and I don\u2019t know why they opened,\u201d he said of the Americans. \u201cBut if they think Seychelles is important they will have an embassy here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"People<\/a><\/p>\n

People hang out on the beach in the touristic area of Beau Vallon, on the island of Mahe.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Doing the little things<\/h2>\n

Seychelles illustrates the kind of largesse China has lavished even on some of the world\u2019s most remote countries. Best known as a tourist destination, its exquisite beaches draw mostly European tourists to its palm fringed shores and pristine coral reefs. Almost all of its 115 islands are uninhabited, and with a landmass of 175 miles and a population of around 100,000, it is Africa\u2019s smallest nation.<\/p>\n

But its position on the equator and at the easternmost gateway to the African continent gives it an outsize geopolitical significance. France and Britain contested the islands in the 19th century, the United States and the Soviet Union in the 20th \u2014 and now Seychelles is finding itself caught up again between competing powers.<\/p>\n

At first glance, China appears to have no immediate stake in the country. There is a small Chinese community of around 1,000 that dates back to the 19th century. But Chinese visitors accounted for less than 1 percent of the island\u2019s tourists over the past year, according to Seychellois figures, and even before the pandemic few came from China. Unusually for an African country, Seychelles does not count China among its top trading partners. Most of its goods are imported from the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and the European Union.<\/p>\n

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A woman hangs clothes to dry in her garden. She is one of thousands of Seychellois who live in housing built by China and made available at subsidized prices.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Chinese supervisor checks out a new building for subsidized housing.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A shortage of housing for the least well-off is identified by Seychelles officials as one of the country\u2019s biggest social needs.<\/span>\u00a9\u00a0Eduardo Soteras for The Washington Post<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Related video<\/span>:\u00a0US support for the Philippines on South China Sea has been ‘just over the horizon’: Analyst\u00a0(CNBC)<\/p>\n

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