Tonga, China, missionaries and satellites -

satellites - a lucrative combination

By Michael Field

SOME might call it cynical and others admire the prag matism, but when Tonga dumped Taiwan and recog nised China multi-millionaire Princess Pilolevu Tuita told her people it was all in the name of God.

Interestingly the major financial benefi ciary out of the move is the princess her self whose 60 per cent ownership of the satellite company Tonga Sat has, according to US business magazine Forbes, given her a personal worth of US$25 million.

She pushed for the change to enhance the business prospects of the Hong Kong arm of the company that was struggling because her kingdom, out of what proved shifting loyalty and dedicated anti-commu nism, preferred Taiwan.

Tonga dumped Taipei on November 2, doing it in an unusual fashion when King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV unveiled a Made in China bronze larger-than-life replica of himself in the grounds of the palace with China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jiechi Yang, looking on.

Directing proceedings was Pilolevu, who is now the effective political power in Tonga now that Baron Vaea has submitted his resignation as prime minister. The deci sion was announced by the new Foreign Minister, Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, who at the age of 39 has just got around to finishing university and is being tipped as Vaea’s replacement.

A couple of weeks later the zero-sum diplomatic game continued apace when the Marshall Islands switched from China to Taiwan. Tonga’s behaviour is strange given its background as Taiwan’s oldest ally in the Pacific.

In February last year the king opened Taiwan’s lavish new T 52.5 million embassy built on Crown Prince Tupouto’a’s land. The Crown Prince, who was the foreign minister then, came up with the design concept and said it should be “something that should last for at least 100 years”. Taiwan’s Prime Minister Vincent Siew showed up for the king’s

birthday in July, seemingly unaware that the princess was already working in Beijing to have the relationship severed.

In 1992 Taiwan Foreign Minister Frederick Chien visited Tonga - at the same time a pro-democracy convention was going on and presented US$l.5 million to build a hall in memory of Queen Salote. “We will never forget the enormous assistance of the government of the Republic of China,” the king replied.

‘Business - fine,

normalising relationships

- true, but this is what I

have been looking at,

because His Majesty’s

vision is for Tongans to

be evangelists’

Quiet now is the Speaker, Noble Fusitu’a, who was a high ranking member of the Taiwan funded World Anti- Communist League. They convinced him that the democracy movement in Tonga was made up of “crypto-communists”. He was strongly anti-Communist.

“The exact definition of communist nobody has ever tried to explain. A com munist to you is different to a communist to me. Anybody who tries to move the peo ple against the established order, causing chaos, anarchy, that’s the first degree of communism”.

The princess explained her position in the bimonthly Matangi Tonga magazine.

She said her father had given her a man date to negotiate the switch, saying “it is one of the most courageous decisions that his majesty has made”.

It was “the first step for Tonga to become a full member of the United Nations”, an odd statement to make given recognition of China was never a pre-req uisite to UN membership.

The princess has now set up in Hong Kong with a Chinese business partner, Fred Wang, trying to sell Tonga Sat’s satel lite slots to China. “I believe that God invented us to do this work otherwise we

could have become just another foreigner knocking on doors in Beijing for years without having a chance to meet the lead ers of China,” she told the magazine.

“We are honoured that we became part of his majesty’s vision for Tonga’s future”.

The princess said China would become a destination for Tongan missionaries.

“I look upon this new relationship with China as a means of spreading the Lord’s words to China. When China opens its doors to Christian evangelists, Tonga should be right there by the door”.

Then came something of a recognition that money was Involved. “Business - fine, normalising relationships - true, but this is what I have been looking at, because his majesty’s vision is for Tongans to be evan gelists, for Tonga to be an evangelist coun try to spread the word, I truly see this as an opportunity for all good Christians in Tonga”.

She claimed evidence existed that his was already happening with the Chinese saying Grace before meals she was involved in. She first visited Beijing in 1996, discovering to her apparent surprise that “almost everything in China is either owned and run by the government, or that government is the major shareholder”.

It was through her business contacts with the “China Association for International Friendly Contact” that the big bronze statue of the king was made.

Tonga Sat was formed after Tonga star tled the international satellite market by claiming seven key equatorial satellite slots. Although it did not need the slots itself it has, in partnership with other com panies, used Russian satellites to fill the slots.

These days Tonga Sat has four orbital slots that cover the Asia-Pacific region and China has become a key to the strategy to sell a service. “We are looking at how we are going to make a trans-Pacific link between Asia and the USA a reality,” she says. “And that is what we are working on right now, and China is supporting us, because they want to play a role in com municating to the millions of Chinese peo ple in the United States”. ■