Fiji PM ‘trips using phone on stairs’, cancels China trip

Fiji’s prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka has deferred his official visit to China after tripping on the stairs while using his phone and sustaining a minor head injury.

Rabuka was due to attend the opening of the World University Games in Chengdu, where he would have met China's President Xi Jinping. It comes amid geopolitical tensions in the region with a competition for influence between the US and China.

In a social media video last night, the Fijian leader said he tripped on the stairs while looking at his phone and hit his head, causing some bleeding.

He showed his blood-stained shirt and a bandage in a video message posted, where he announced his decision to call off the trip.

"I've just come back from the hospital where I had a dressing put on my head for a small accident I had this morning," the leader said.

He said he had been taken to the hospital, where he received a dressing for his wound.

“I have had to inform China I will not be able to undertake the trip that was coming up tomorrow night,” Rabuka said. "I'm sure there will be other invitations later on and I hope I will be able to honour that invitation.

"There will be a lot of speculation, but nothing to worry about."

Rabuka, who was elected in December, has previously said he was reviewing a contentious police cooperation agreement with China, signed by the former government in 2011, that has allowed Chinese police officers to be stationed in Fiji.

China has also signed policing deals with other Pacific Island nations, such as Solomon Islands, which Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare visited earlier this month.

International relations expert Alex Tan told Breakfast that the incident was a "curious accident" but that it was convenient for Rabuka.

"I can't speak to it so directly because I'm not a Fiji expert, but I can note that prime minister Rabuka had been stepping back on a lot of arrangements with China," he said.

"It's a curious accident, so to speak, but very convenient, in the way that the United States is indeed stepping up its presence in the South Pacific as well.

"Fiji is a big player in the South Pacific as an important focal point for American strategy there. With Blinken here, opening all these embassies that they have never had, it says that the United States is really taking the South Pacific more seriously."

At one point during his visit to Wellington in June, Rabuka appeared to go further by referring to Fiji’s “discontinuation” of its security agreement with China.

“If our systems and our values differ, what cooperation can we get from them?” Rabuka said, referring to China.

“We need to look at that again before we decide whether we go back to it, or if we continue the way that we have in the past by cooperating with those who have similar democratic values and systems.”

It came just before Fiji and New Zealand signed off on a new defence agreement.

He said there has been a lot of geopolitical focus on the region, but that Pacific countries only worry about militarisation “when diplomacy and common neighbourly discussions fail.”

China has previously said the security agreements have benefited Fiji and it hopes to continue the collaboration.

Rabuka won a tense election in December over Frank Bainimarama, who had held power in Fiji for 16 years. Rabuka has moved since then to distance himself from some of Bainimarama’s policies, including moves to forge closer ties with China.

China and the US have increased their competition for influence in the Pacific in recent years.

In May, the US signed a new security pact with Papua New Guinea, which is strategically located just north of Australia. The US has also opened embassies in Solomon Islands and Tonga, and revived Peace Corps volunteer efforts.

Last year, the Solomon Islands signed its own security pact with China, a move that raised alarm throughout the Pacific.

— Additional reporting by the Associated Press