" This volume] is not just timely, but it resides in a field where interest is growing strongly. For any University course teaching China's foreign relations, it would comprise a highly recommended source - in particular for any component dealing with China's relations with the developing world." . Roderic Alley, Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

It is important to see China's activities in the Pacific Islands, not just in terms of a specific set of interests, but in the context of Beijing's recent efforts to develop a comprehensive and global foreign policy. China's policy towards Oceania is part of a much larger outreach to the developing world, a major work in progress that involves similar initiatives in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. This groundbreaking study of China's "soft power" initiatives in these countries offers, for the first time, the diverse perspectives of scholars and diplomats from Oceania, North American, China and Japan. It explores such issues as regional competition for diplomatic and economic ties between Taiwan and China, the role of overseas Chinese in developing these relationships and various analyses of the benefits and drawbacks of China's growing presence in Oceania. In addition, the reader obtains a rare review of the Japanese response to China's role in Oceania, presented by Japan's leading scholar of the Pacific region."

The young George Hatem journeyed to Shanghai in 1933 to practice medicine and see the sights. The deplorable health and social conditions he found there caused his sympathies to veer quickly to the revolutionary efforts of the Chinese Communist party, and before long he joined the underground Party members in conspiratorial meetings and activities. In 1936 he left Shanghai on a secret Province after completing the Long March. For the next 14 years, Hatem served the Communist troops as physician and adviser. He took the name Ma Haide and became the first foreigner admitted into China's Communist Party. After the Communist victory in 1949, he became the first foreigner granted citizenship in the People's Republic. Over the next 40 years, his reputation grew as one of the leading public health physicians in the world. Until his death in 1988, he showed absolute allegiance to the Party. Few foreigners have been accepted into Chinese society as readily as he and certainly none have had such intimate access to 20th century China's most powerful figures.

The young George Hatem journeyed to Shanghai in 1933 to practice medicine and see the sights. The deplorable health and social conditions he found there caused his sympathies to veer quickly to the revolutionary efforts of the Chinese Communist Party, and before long he joined underground Party members in conspiratorial meetings and activities. In 1936 he left Shanghai on a secret mission to China's Red Army, which was then settling in Shaanxi Province after completing the Long March. For the next fourteen years, Hatem served the Communist troops as physician and advisor. He took the name Ma Haide and became the first foreigner admitted into China's Communist Party. After the Communist victory in 1949, he became the first foreigner granted citizenship in the People's Republic. Over the next forty years, his reputation grew as one of the leading public health physicians in the world. Along the way he played Ping-Pong with Mao, tended to Zhou Enlai's broken arm, cared for Dr. Sun Yat-sen's widow on her deathbed, and spearheaded China's effort to eradicate leprosy and venereal disease. Until his death in 1988, he showed absolute allegiance to the Party. Few foreigners have been accepted into Chinese society as readily and appreciatively as he and certainly none have had such intimate access to twentieth-century China's most powerful figures.