2021年8月6日，太平洋岛国论坛举行年度会议开幕式，美国总统拜登透过视频连线的方式发表讲话，这是美国总统首次在该会议上致词。

美国国家安全委员会印太事务协调员坎贝尔表示，太平洋岛国“在价值观、联合国中作用、健康挑战、气候变化、潜在军事价值、渔业资源等方面已经日益成为竞技场”。随后，拜登政府在该地区动作频频，矛头直指遏制中国影响力扩张。8月，美国总统历史上首次以视频方式出席太平洋岛国论坛并致辞，将这一波外交攻势推向顶峰。

拜登政府将南太平洋视为“竞技场”，既表明美国已将争夺太平洋岛国上升至战略新高度，也折射出美国等西方国家在该地区影响力面临现实危机。美国政策发力的出发点或有以下几个方面：

首先，美国看重太平洋岛国的地缘价值。太平洋岛国是海上交通要道和枢纽，地处美国构筑的对华第二与第三岛链中间地带。在中美战略博弈、拜登政府持续推动外交和军事资源向印太聚焦的背景下，南太地区已逐步成为中美竞争前沿，地缘重要性愈发突显。

其次，中国推动与太平洋岛国经贸合作。太平洋岛国具有“小岛屿、大海洋”特点，相关国家同属不发达经济体，但专属经济区资源丰富，在基建、能源、农业等方面发展潜力较大。中国与太平洋岛国优势互补、开放合作、共享发展，在“一带一路”倡议推动下，双方在基建、经贸、旅游、教育等领域合作成果显著，有力推动了相关国家的经济发展和民生改善。中国与太平洋岛国的外交关系也随之升温，先后与所罗门群岛建交、与基里巴斯复交。巴布亚新几内亚、斐济等11个太平洋岛国相继签署“一带一路”合作谅解备忘录。

最后，西方国家政治干预引发不满。美国一直将太平洋岛国视为势力范围，澳大利亚和新西兰等盟友借助太平洋岛国论坛等区域机制长期垄断地区事务。但今年2月，密克罗尼西亚联邦、帕劳、马绍尔群岛、瑙鲁和基里巴斯五国因不满澳方干预太平洋岛国论坛秘书长选举而“集体退群”，引发美国等西方国家高度关注和警惕。

在此背景下，美国开始放低身段，亲自插手地区事务，突出对华竞争，以图迅速恢复地区秩序，达到亡羊补牢之效。从近期情况看，拜登政府或从以下三方面着力，持续坐实南太“竞技场”论调，以强化对华博弈。

第一，外交事务推议题。区域治理方面，首先平息域内国家怨气，挽回政治失分。坎贝尔解释称，美国在太平洋岛屿国家“有巨大历史道义和战略价值，但有时我们忘记了这一点”。他承诺将举行太平洋岛国会议作为未来一段时期内与澳、新、日及其他盟友合作的首要事项。美国国家安全顾问沙利文与太平洋岛国大使通电话，强调将扩大区域参与，深化外交关系，共同应对气候变化、新冠疫情、非法捕鱼和海上安全等问题。气候变化方面，国务卿布林肯承诺向太平洋岛国提供专家、技术和更多投资，提升相关国家基础设施和农业等领域的韧性。抗疫援助方面，美国将重点通过国际开发署等机构提升在相关国家人员数量，加大援助资金规模，对冲所谓中国“疫苗外交”。拜登总统也保证，将向地区国家无附带条件捐赠疫苗。

第二，经济建设提标准。布林肯提醒太平洋国家领导人警惕“对基于规则的国际秩序的威胁”和“经济胁迫”，提出区域投资和开发要符合经济社会可持续、公开透明、自主决策等三大标准，拐弯抹角指责中国“一带一路”项目。同时，西方媒体不断炒作巴布亚新几内亚深陷中国“债务泥潭”，渲染中国在基里巴斯坎顿岛的机场和港口建设项目意在抢占太平洋战略要地，持续对华舆论抹黑。在美国政治干预和施压下，中国企业参与的太平洋海底光纤电缆项目和萨摩亚港口建设项目近期也不断传出搁浅消息。

第三，海上安全重威慑。海警方面，美国以中国渔船、海警和海军强化在南太平洋存在为名，提升美国海岸警卫队在西太平洋前沿部署规模，包括在关岛和美属萨摩亚部署巡逻船，并首次在美国驻澳大利亚使馆派驻海岸警卫队官员。美国甚至希望探索以海岸警卫队联合巡逻、联合执法或美方执法人员登船指导等方式，对中国在南太平洋海域的远洋渔船等开展驱离、紧追和登船检查等执法活动，实现短时间内提升太平洋岛国海上态势感知和开展“维权行动”的能力。海军方面，美国印太司令部司令在国会提出，在西太第一岛链分散建立能够经受敌人攻击的精准打击作战网络，在太平洋岛国帕劳部署战术多功能雷达，并在各处建立多个联合训练基地，补强对华常规威慑力量。此后，帕劳总统近期访美并会见美国防长奥斯汀时，双方开始讨论美军进驻帕劳的必要性及其对华威慑效果。

由上观之，拜登政府所谓“竞技场”论调还是没有跳出零和博弈思维，其出发点是美国利益，而非岛国需求，立意在“破”，而非“构”。其政治遏制、经济围堵、军事威慑等动作明显带有应手棋和后手棋的意味，短期内或许会在南太地区造成一定波动，但长期来看无助于太平洋岛国发展，最终难以逃脱“竹篮打水一场空”的宿命。

2021年8月6日，太平洋岛国论坛举行年度会议开幕式，美国总统拜登透过视频连线的方式发表讲话，这是美国总统首次在该会议上致词。

Kurt Campbell, the coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, said of the island nations of the Pacific: “Increasingly, again, this is an arena of competition both in terms of values, their role at the United Nations, their health challenges, climate change, their potential role militarily, healthy fishing stocks — just down the list.” The Biden administration then made a number of moves in the region, targeting the expansion of Chinese influence. This diplomatic offensive culminated in August with the first video appearance and address by a U.S. president at the Pacific Islands Forum.

The Biden administration's view of the South Pacific as an arena of competition indicates that the U.S. has raised the competition over Pacific Island nations to a new strategic level, but it also reflects the real crisis facing the U.S. and other Western countries in the region. The starting point of the U.S. policy may be the following:

First, the United States sees the geopolitical value of the Pacific Island nations. These countries are transportation hubs that lie along the main sea routes in the middle of the second and third island chains and are useful to the U.S. against China. In the context of the China-U.S. strategic competition and the Biden administration's continued push to focus diplomatic and military resources on the Indo-Pacific, the South Pacific region has gradually become the front line of Sino-U.S. competition, and its geopolitical importance has become more prominent.

Second, China is promoting economic and trade cooperation with Pacific Island countries. These countries may be characterized as small islands, large oceans and underdeveloped economies, but they have rich resources in their exclusive economic zones and greater development potential in infrastructure, energy and agriculture. China and the Pacific Island countries can complement each other, engage in open cooperation and share development. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, the two sides have achieved remarkable results in cooperation in economy and trade, infrastructure, tourism and education, which have strongly contributed to the development of the economies and the improvement of island people's lives.China has also warmed up its diplomatic relations with the island countries, establishing diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands and restoring diplomatic relations with Kiribati. Eleven Pacific Island countries, including Papua New Guinea and Fiji, have signed memorandums of understanding on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Finally, the political interference of Western countries has caused discontent. The United States has always regarded the Pacific Island countries as within its sphere of influence, and its allies, including Australia and New Zealand, have long monopolized regional affairs through mechanisms such as the Pacific Islands Forum.But in February this year, five Pacific Island nations — the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati, withdrew from the Pacific Islands Forum because of dissatisfaction over Australian interference in the election of its secretary-general, triggering a high degree of concern and vigilance in the United States and other Western countries.

In this context, the U.S. began to condescend to get more involved in regional affairs and highlighting competition with China in an attempt to quickly restore regional order and achieve the effect of gathering lost sheep.The latest developments suggest that the Biden administration may focus on the following three areas to reinforce its view of an arena of competition with China.

1. Developing foreign affairs issues. In terms of regional governance, first of all, the Biden administration will work to calm the grievances of the countries in the region and to recover political points lost. Campbell explained: “These are islands which we have enormous historical, moral and strategic interest in, and sometimes we forget that.”He also promised: “So one of the things that we are looking to do over the course of the next little while, working closely with allies like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and others, is to convene with Pacific Island nations to talk about arenas of common purpose.”U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke by phone with the ambassadors of Pacific Island nations, emphasizing the need to broaden regional engagement, deepen diplomatic ties and work together on issues such as climate change, the COVID-19 epidemic, illegal fishing and maritime security. On climate change, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to provide Pacific Island nations with experts, technology and more investment to boost the resilience of related countries in areas such as infrastructure and agriculture.In addition, the U.S. will focus on hedging against China's so-called vaccine diplomacy by increasing the number of personnel and the scale of funding in the countries concerned through agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development. President Biden has also pledged to donate vaccines to countries in the region with no strings attached.

2. Raising economic development standards. Blinken warned leaders of Pacific Island countries about “threats to the rules-based international order” and “economic coercion.” He proposed that regional investment and development should meet three main standards: economic and social sustainability, openness and transparency and autonomous decision-making — a veiled swipe at China's Belt and Road projects.In addition, Western media continue to speculate that Papua New Guinea is mired in the “Chinese loan quagmire” and that China's airport and port construction projects on Kiribati's Canton Island are designed to seize strategic positions in the Pacific, again smearing China through public opinion.Because of U.S. political interference and pressure, Chinese companies' participation in the Pacific submarine fiber-optic cable project and the Samoa port construction project was recently put on hold.

3. Emphasizing deterrence in maritime security. On the maritime policing front, the United States has boosted the scale of its Coast Guard forward deployments in the Western Pacific, including the deployment of patrol vessels in Guam and American Samoa. For the first time, the U.S. has stationed Coast Guard officers at the U.S. embassy in Australia, under pretext of countering any expansion of Chinese fishing vessels, maritime police and Navy in the South Pacific.The U.S. even hopes to explore the use of joint coast guard patrols and joint law enforcement (with U.S. law enforcement personnel on board) to guide law enforcement activities such as dispersal, hot pursuit and the boarding and inspection of China's oceangoing fishing vessels in South Pacific waters — all this to enhance the Pacific Island countries' awareness of maritime developments and their ability to carry out “rights defense operations” in a short period of time.On the naval front, the chief of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command proposed to Congress the establishment of a precision strike combat network capable of withstanding enemy attacks in the first island chain of the western Pacific, the deployment of tactical multifunctional radars in the Pacific Island nation of Palau and the establishment of multiple joint training bases in various locations to strengthen conventional deterrence against China.Recently, when the President of Palau visited the Washington and met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the two sides began discussing the need for U.S. forces to be stationed in Palau and their deterrent effect on China.

All this suggests that the Biden administration's notion of an arena of competition still has not broken out of a zero-sum game mentality. It starts from U.S. interests, rather than from the needs of the island nations. Its intention is to break rather than construct.The political containment, economic containment, military deterrence and other actions of the United States are obviously meant to counter Chinese moves. In the short term, they may cause some ripples in the South Pacific region, but in the long run they will not contribute to development. They will ultimately come to nothing.