Pacific nations have backed China's claim over Taiwan during a high-profile meeting, but have shied away from directly endorsing Beijing's push to "reunify" the democratically ruled island with the mainland.
China has also taken a shot at the United States over climate policy, promising to work with the region to combat climate shocks despite the Trump administration's decision to abandon the Paris Agreement.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday sat down with foreign ministers from eight Pacific nations — along with senior officials from three others — in the southern city of Xiamen.
It's the third time China has held a meeting with Pacific foreign ministers, but it's the first time the event has been held in person rather than online, and Beijing has trumpeted the gathering as a major milestone.
China has long been pushing to expand its influence throughout the region, and analysts say the Trump administration's sweeping global tariffs and aid cuts will open up more opportunities for it.
Beijing has also been intent on building global support for its increasingly forceful stance on Taiwan, which it has pledged to bring under its control.
A joint statement issued after the meeting declared that all the Pacific nations "recognise that there is but one China in the world, that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China".
But the statement doesn't explicitly and directly endorse the Chinese government's push to take Taiwan, as Pacific nations like Solomon Islands and Kiribati did last year.
It uses slightly softer language instead, reiterating China's determination to "realising national reunification" and saying this commitment "gained wide understanding and support at the meeting".
Dr Anna Powles from Massey University said Beijing would have been hoping for clearer backing on Taiwan at the meeting.
"Unlike previous years, the statement devotes considerable attention to the Taiwan issue including more forceful language on national reunification," she said.
"That said, the Pacific Island nations' position is ambiguous with reference to 'understanding and support' falling short of an endorsement of reunification which would have been Beijing's objective."
The three Pacific nations which still recognise Taiwan rather than Beijing — namely Palau, Tuvalu and the Republic of Marshall Islands — weren't at the gathering.
[YouTube Taiwan drills]The joint statement also doesn't directly endorse China's efforts to expand security and policing cooperation with Pacific Island nations, although Beijing pledged in a separate outcomes document to hold another dialogue on police training with the Pacific before the end of the year.
Dr Powles said that China "continues to present itself as an alternative security and policing partner to Pacific Island countries".
"However it is less clear how widespread support is amongst Pacific countries with the exception of Solomon Islands and Kiribati," she said.
"Three ministerial dialogues on policing and law enforcement have already been held without substantive region-wide outcomes so far."
China promises to support Pacific disaster response, infrastructure
China has also promised to establish a new "mechanism" to help with disaster management in the region, and to deliver 100 "small but beautiful" projects across the region over the next three years — using a term which has been adopted as a guiding principle under Beijing's global "Belt and Road" infrastructure program.
Separately it said it would make a modest $2 million investment in sectors like clean energy, fisheries and tourism across the Pacific.
"China fully recognises the vulnerability of the economic and social development of the Pacific Island countries in the face of the climate change crisis," the Foreign Ministry said.
Wang Yi also took a thinly veiled swipe at the Trump administration for ditching its global climate commitments.
"We deeply regret that a certain major country has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement," he said, according to state media.
"However, regardless of how the situation changes, China's resolve to support and participate in global climate governance will not waver, nor will our commitment to implementing South-South cooperation on climate change."
Dr Powles said US retrenchment on climate under Trump "gives China the opportunity to wedge" the US in the region, but "whether this carries currency and advantage with Pacific countries is less clear".
Some Pacific countries have already criticised the Trump administration's 'Liberation Day tariffs', warning they will undermine US credibility and sap goodwill towards Washington.
In a separate meeting Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Peter Shanel told Wang Yi that his country would "continue to stand firmly with China and jointly oppose unilateralism and protectionism by the United States", according to a readout from China's Foreign Ministry.
But there were no direct criticisms of the US in the readouts of bilateral meetings which Wang Yi also had with the foreign ministers from Cook Islands, Tonga and Kiribati on Wednesday.
Wang Yi is expected to hold standalone meetings with other Pacific foreign ministers later today.
