PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—Vice President Mike Pence and Chinese President Xi Jinping presented conflicting visions for trade and security in the Asia-Pacific, as the U.S. and China vie for global influence.
At a meeting of Pacific Rim leaders Saturday, China’s leader invoked the dark lessons of World War II to warn against conflicts and unilateralism, while Mr. Pence attacked China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative for saddling smaller nations with unsustainable debt.
“We don’t drown our partners in a sea of debt. We don’t coerce, corrupt, or compromise your independence,” the vice president told delegates at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, meeting on a cruise ship in this tropical port. “The United States deals openly and fairly—and we don’t offer a constricting belt or a one-way road. When you partner with us, we partner with you, and we all prosper.”
The hardening U.S. rhetoric comes as China has pulled out all stops in Papua New Guinea to cast itself as the beneficent power that can help take the impoverished host nation on the path to prosperity. Hundreds of Chinese flags line a new six-lane highway built by China that leads to Papua New Guinea’s Parliament building.
“Confrontation whether in a Cold War, hot war, or trade war will produce no winner,” Mr. Xi said in his speech to the summit earlier Saturday. Chinese delegates packed the hall minutes before Mr. Xi walked on stage, applauding the president on cue at key inflections in his speech.
The face-off is an escalation of the U.S.-China battle at multilateral forums for influence as Beijing asserts itself as a global power. In a speech Thursday at a summit of Asian nations, Mr. Pence warned that “empire and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific.” He didn’t mention any country by name, but White House aides left little doubt the reference was to China.
The South Pacific, dotted by thousands of islands and home to important shipping lanes and fisheries, is again in strategic calculations as China modernizes its military to project power far from its shores—threatening the dominance of the U.S. and its allies—while also seeking to broaden its diplomatic and trade access.
Some smaller nations, reliant on China economically, have said they fear being caught in the crossfire or being forced to choose between Washington and Beijing.
Mr. Xi made reference Saturday to some of the fiercest fighting between the U.S. and its allies and Japan during the Pacific campaign, including the battles of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal, which he said “plunged mankind into calamity not far from where we are.” To avoid a repeat of those tragedies, Mr. Xi said, the international community needs to rally around globalization and “reject arrogance and prejudice.”
The U.S. and its allies are increasingly coordinating to counter what officials see as Beijing’s attempts to gain influence over smaller nations. Over the past two years, American businesses have announced more than 1,500 new projects and more than $61 billion in new investments across the region, Mr. Pence said Saturday. The U.S., Japan and Australia announced a trilateral partnership in July to invest in infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region, and they are vying to build an internet network in Papua New Guinea to block a Chinese telecom company.
Mr. Pence on Saturday announced the U.S. will partner with Australia to redevelop a naval base on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Mr. Pence’s aides were making changes to his speech nearly until the point it was delivered. They reviewed drafts aboard Air Force Two en route to Papua New Guinea, scrambling to incorporate comments about China made by President Trump hours earlier.
In a news conference, the vice president expanded on what the U.S. expects of China in the region: “We want to see China step up and begin to engage the world economically and otherwise in a way that respects our international trading system and respects all nations large and small.”
In a pull-aside discussion with the head of Taiwan’s APEC delegation, Morris Chang, Mr. Pence said he was asked if the U.S. would be amenable to a trade agreement with Taiwan, which was eager to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that President Trump abandoned after taking office. “I assured them [Taiwan] that we would carry back that interest,” Mr. Pence told reporters.
Mr. Pence has no plans to meet with Chinese officials during the summit, an aide said.
Taiwan has diplomatic relations with several Pacific island states, but China has been increasingly assertive in luring Taipei’s diplomatic partners into Beijing’s camp over recent years.
At a separate meeting here Saturday, a top aide to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned of the unintended consequences of a growing rivalry between Beijing and Washington.
“For the Philippines, it will be flaming collateral damage or a raging inferno,” said Salvador Panelo. “There must be self-restraint from all the countries around the area,” he said, adding the move by the U.S. and Australia to redevelop the Manus Island naval base astride the southern approaches to the South China Sea, and recent exercises, were provocative.
The base, built by U.S. forces in 1944, was used as a launchpad to retake the Pacific from Japanese forces and support the American campaign to liberate the Philippines. American troops built a 9,000-foot runway and wharves on the island, and later used the base to try Japanese war criminals.
Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com, Chuin-Wei Yap at chuin-wei.yap@wsj.com, Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com and Rachel Pannett at rachel.pannett@wsj.com
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