I read with interest the Letter to the Editor from from Afamasaga F. Toleafoa addressing China and Developments at Mulifanua. The letter was replying to earlier correspondence from a Mr Kevin Hart which I’ve not seen. 

It is sad to see an educated Samoan trot out old bogeymen in his quest for Aid hand outs. Yes, Samoa did suffer colonialism. But surely with independence already 60 years in the past, Samoans have grown up.  I would have thought “growing up” means aid money is a thing of the past. 

Mr. Toleafoa expresses a distaste for regional Pacific governments and their hypocrisy in regard to trading with mainland China. Mr. Toleafoa is surely 100% correct in his views on this. I would be hard pressed myself to find a more unpalatable politician than the current Australian prime minister - and his predecessors. I would ask however, that before he would commit Samoa to an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party he do some research into the loss of political autonomy in Australia that has come about with the rush to market and profit in mainland China. 

I suggest he start with surveying the citizenry of Tibet and Xinjiang. How do Tibetans and Uighurs feel they are doing under the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship? I suggest that he visit Cambodia and see for himself the corruption entailed in taking hand-outs from a police state. I suggest he discuss with other Pacific country leaders what they think of the Chinese Communist Party’s preparations for war – with especial reference to the militarisation by desecration of reefs in the South China Sea.  I note on this point, that the Communist Party of China spurned the International Court’s rulings. 

As part of this research, I suggest that Mr. Toleafoa also visit Taiwan. Recently Taiwan has shown it is open for business. I’m not sure how open Mme President Tsai Ying-wen and her Government are in term of approaches for aid money; but at least in Taiwan you can find a free press, freedom of association, freedom of speech; you can find free and fair elections, rule of law and transparency. Levels of corruption are probably (by Chinese Communist Party standards) almost non-existent in Taiwan. 

No survey on such an important question could be complete without meeting and seeking the views of jailed professionals who have dared to champion human rights. I am thinking of Mrs. Wang Yu of Beijing; Mr. Li Wenzu; the list is a long one. As in ages past, the jails of China are full of the tortured and illegally detained. 

I urge Mr. Toleafoa to think hard about his preferences for international relations – and his own motivations for these preferences.

Yours sincerely, 

Robert Travers