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 Prior to the militarisation of China’s activities in the South Pacific, Matthew Dornan, Denghua Zhang and Philippa Brant provided the following analysis: EXIM Bank loans to the Pacific have been used to fund both productive as well as less productive infrastructure, ranging from investment in roads, government communication systems, and ports, to government buildings. There has typically been limited economic analysis of such projects. Funding of ongoing costs related to operation and maintenance of infrastructure has also not been considered. This has resulted in the rapid deterioration of infrastructure.71 This analysis coincided with rising criticism from PICs in relation to the unsustainability of some Chinese infrastructure projects (e.g. importing Chinese labour and materials) with little emphasis on local capacity building. Since then, more attention has been given to analysing the effectiveness of these projects and the results are mixed.72 It may be that this development studies’ analysis, and PIC responses to many Chinese projects, actually highlight the limits of the Chinese ability to convert loans/aid into influence. Further evidence of this may also be found from the Chinese themselves, who may be improving the quality of projects, but with commercial rather than strategic interests in mind. If pressure from PICs themselves is shaping China’s aid program, then again we should not underestimate the agency of PIC leaders. The then Foreign Minister highlighted Australia’s role in defending the Pacific from the threat to sovereignty posed by foreign ‘debt traps’.73 Julie Bishop noted that “we want to ensure that they retain their sovereignty … and are not trapped into unsustainable debt outcomes. The trap can then be a debt-for-equity swap and they have lost their sovereignty.”74 The Australian government and media are constructing this threat perception through a process of securitisation; China’s ‘irresponsible’ lending becomes a threat that PICs cannot defend themselves from and this means that they need Australian intervention on their behalf. The threat to PIC sovereignty then becomes a military threat to Australia due to the claim that China could leverage bases from debt distressed PICs. This securitisation speaks to the threat perceptions in Australia, but it may not be as welcome to PICs concerned about climate change, and may not be as effective in countering Chinese influence as other instruments of ‘soft power’ that form part of the ‘Step Up’, but are under-emphasised in the media-reporting.