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Alarming new footage of a battalion of Chinese police officers in Fiji escorting hooded suspects onto a private plane has exposed the authoritarian nation’s secret push for power in the Pacific.
The footage, filmed by a Chinese security agency and obtained by 60 Minutes, shows dozens of Chinese police breaking down doors and arresting nearly 80 young men and women suspected of cyber scammers in Fiji.
The suspected criminals are then hooded, handcuffed, and seated amid row after row of Chinese police officers as they are taken back to China on a charter plane.
“No matter how far away they are, they (crime suspects) will be arrested,” reads a translation of the accompanying Chinese subtitles.
The footage, filmed by a Chinese security agency and obtained by 60 Minutes, shows dozens of Chinese police breaking down doors and arresting nearly 80 young men and women suspected cyber scammers in Fiji (pictured).
The alleged criminals are then hooded, handcuffed and seated amid row after row of Chinese police officers as they are taken back to China on a charter plane (pictured).
Fiji police are simply watching as arrests are made under a controversial police agreement between Suva and Beijing, which critics say shows the extent of China’s pernicious influence in the region.
While the footage was filmed in 2017, Australian National University China specialist Graeme Smith said up to two of these types of “interpretation” exercises were carried out each week.
“It’s a very disturbing path because these types of operations (involving Chinese authorities) are happening all over the world,” Smith told 60 Minutes.
“Our team estimated that this happens twice a week, every week, all over the world, but the Pacific example is quite worrying.”
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (pictured) told 60 Minutes the South Pacific could be destabilized by China’s “unwarranted influence”.
Smith, who was the first to discover the terrifying vision, said it showed Chinese police officers “behaving as if they were in China.”
“The Fiji police are there, but really only in the background, and are, for all intents and purposes, treating Fijian soil as Chinese soil,” Mr Smith said.
‘It is absolutely a surrender of sovereignty and… a very bad precedent that was set.’
The police operation completely bypassed Fiji’s own legal system and alleged offenders were taken to China to face “justice” in the communist country’s murky judicial system.
The Chinese embassy in Fiji said that “police and law enforcement cooperation between China and Fiji is professional, open and transparent.”
The police operation completely bypassed Fiji’s own legal system and the alleged offenders (pictured) were taken to China to face “justice” in the communist country’s murky judicial system.
Pacific island nations such as Fiji have found themselves at the center of a fierce battle for influence between Australia and the United States on the one hand, and China on the other.
China failed to sign 10 nations into a regional security treaty last year, opting instead to focus on striking individual deals with them.
But Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told 60 Minutes that the South Pacific could be destabilized by China’s “unwarranted influence.”
“I understand Australia and the United States, but I don’t fully understand China’s agenda,” Mr Rabuka said.