China has shown senior Pacific Island politicians and media figures how it is trying to alleviate poverty and reach its Millenium Development Goals.
The group, which was on a tour of the country at the invitation of the Chinese government, included senior political figures and journalists from Tonga, Vanuatu, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
A Solomon Islands journalist, Alfred Sasako, who was also on the trip, says China wanted to show Pacific Island countries they could apply its methods of alleviating poverty.
He says he also learnt how vast the Chinese market was for minerals, fish and other resources and that China has done its homework on the region.
"It has established without doubt that Western countries, traditional donors of Pacific Island countries have been very stingy in terms of loan requirements, they've put a lot of conditions and they are sort of dangling the carrot."
Solomon Islands journalist Alfred Sasako
