Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes revealed a fascinating tension within the Fijian government about whether to embrace a 2011 agreement signed with the Chinese government that allows Fijian police officers to receive training in China and Chinese officers to be deployed to Fiji.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka last year suggested he wanted to scrap the memorandum of understanding, which was signed when the Fijian government was under military rule, due to differing values with the Chinese government and his desire for closer ties with the US, Australia and New Zealand. However, Fijian Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua wants to maintain the agreement.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.Credit: 60 Minutes

The reflexive question that arises in Canberra over this tension within the Fijian government’s highest ranks is: what should Australia do?

Quite simply, we should do nothing. To even offer an opinion on what Fiji ought to do would be unhelpful. This has nothing to do with Australia or our sovereignty.

If there are lessons to be drawn from the saga of Fiji’s police cooperation with China, the most stark is that China’s idea of police cooperation has nothing to do with Australia, and little to do with Fiji for that matter.

Unlike the Solomon Islands’ security agreement with China, anyone can read Fiji’s MOU. The document looks like it was put together with input from both sides; it reflects the security and policing concerns of China and Fiji. Prominent “areas of co-operation” include: the arrest of fugitives and cybercrime, drug-related crimes and trafficking in persons.

The Age’s investigation suggests that the main preoccupation of China is control of Chinese citizens abroad, particularly those who bring harm to the mainland.

In 2017, six years after the MOU was signed, more than 70 Chinese nationals were seized from compounds in Nadi, hooded and marched onto a China Southern flight bound for Changchun in China’s north-east. Each of them was flanked by two officers. Police went so far as to make a video, set to stirring orchestral music, and it was shared on WeChat by the provincial public security department.