The Earth Knowledge Bureau

Text | Laura Shin

Proofreading | Chao Gan Editing | Ha

A few days ago, another foreign leader came out of Guangdong. The current president of the South Pacific island country Nauru, David Adeang, was elected president., win re-election.

Quote: Again in Guangzhou.

(Image from the Nauru Government)

Nauru is The world's smallest island country and smallest republic, the third lowest in population. Although Nauru is small, it has a strong sense of existence and is known as a "rich country with bird droppings."

¡ø Picture note: There are many island countries in the Pacific, Nauru is the smallest of them

Just the next day of his re-election, the family of Guangdong opened the square in the town of Red Canyon in the share village playing gongs and drums Celebrate for the Country.In July, David Adrien led 27 people back to his grandfather¡¯s hometown. Seeking the ancestors.¡£

¡ø Picture note: This is going home, adding a note to the family tree

(Photo: People's Government of Chikan Town, Kaiping City, Jiangmen)

How did this Guangdong man step up to the post of president?

From crap to president.

What does it mean to be president in the world¡¯s smallest island country? we can compare David Adion¡¯s home.

Chikan, Kaiping, Guangdong is a small town with a population of 27,600 and an area of 62.1 square kilometers. A small town like Chikan Town, There are 2,14 million in China.

¡ø Picture note: Chikan Town, with a long history, is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese

(Photo: Tuchong Creativity)

The population under the President of Nauru is only 11,000, Equivalent to half of ChikanThe area of jurisdiction is only 21 square kilometers, only one-third of the Red Canyon, but after all, it is a president of a country, and the powers are different from the countrymen.

The third smallest country in the world is also the smallest island country.

Photo by Shutterstock

Nevertheless, Nauru is somewhat different from the general independent sovereign states.

Independent country in 1968. without army.Only the civil police are responsible for the defense of Australia. No final adjudication power, judicial appeals go to the Australian High Court; no currency, the Australian dollar is the official currency. Even the finance minister was once appointed by Australia.

The Assyrians are the strongest force on the island.

(Photo: Yitu.com)

Being president of Nauru means that there is no military power, no judicial power, no economic power. Administrative and legislativePlay a role on.

Since the real power is in the hands of Australia, Nauru is left with only symbolic virtual power. Coupled with its small population, it naturally does not need so many administrative levels and parties.

The Nauru Parliament is unicameral with only 19 members, each of whom only represents an individual or company, forming an alliance. The president is the elected leader and forms a Cabinet of 5-6 people¡£

Currently, the Nauru Parliament consists mainly of three factions:

l Representing the founding generation of aborigines: Hammer DeRoburt and veteran Doweyogo, who were elected president six times each, were the leaders of Nauru 100 years ago;

l Pro-Australian factionKeke-Stephen family and Kun family

l Mixed-race immigrant representativesChinese descendants of the Adion family and British descendants of the René Harris family.

In this place of "few people and few things", it is also possible for civilians to reach high positions through the efforts of several generations. The reason why David Adieng can become president is closely related to the struggle of four generations of Nauru Chinese.

In 1900, the British discovered in Nauru phosphate rockThese minerals are inherited. Hundreds of millions of years of bird droppings¡£

In 7, Pacific Phosphate began mining, Introduction of contracts.David Adion¡¯s outsider grandfather, the priest, came to Nauru and became a ¡°crawler.¡±

¡ø Illustration: In the 20th century, China workers working in Nauru's phosphate mines

(Photo: Yitu.com)

And to the generation of David, he became the second generation of officers. Because his father, Kenan Adion, was in the years 1989-2002. Three times president, is the second generation builder of Nauru.

David Adion was born almost in the same year as Nauru. He is the first generation of Nauru after independence. He started as a lawyer and served as Minister of Finance, Justice and Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Speaker, etc.

In October 2023, Davey was elected president for the first time, and in October 2025, he became the second president of the family.

David Adion not only benefited from the hard work of Chinese people, but also More "international advantage" than other candidatesRelying on China gave him the opportunity to change the past 20 years of Nauru¡¯s weakness and open the door to reform.

From rich to messy.

Although Nauru is a small country, it faces many problems, and it is not easy to be president.

The country was once rich due to its abundant phosphate resources, and its per capita income ranked first in the world in the 1970s. However, entering the 1980s, with the deposition The bird¡¯s phosphorus mines are gradually exhausted.Nauru has become a typical resource-exhausted country and is also affected by Threats of sea level riseOne of the most serious countries.

¡ø Caption: It's really easy to make money selling mines, and you can't stop digging big and extra digging

(Photo: Yitu.com)

A country that relies on resources and has a population of about ten thousand, how can it develop after resources are exhausted?

In contrast, the same mineral-rich, rare-populated Xinjiang Robo Town, which is not only the world's largest sulfuric uranium production base, It also has the functions of research bases and tourist destinations.¡£ However, due to the lack of infrastructure, Nauru is difficult to attract tourists and lacks scientific research value, making it one of the countries with the least tourists in the world.

¡ø Note: Visitors can only see the characteristic "mining remnants" when they come.

(Photo: Yitu.com)

Looking at the town of Fukuoka, which has a population of about ten thousand, and has no mineral resources, it has successfully developed the precision machinery manufacturing and cranberry industry with the advantage of the second largest Chinese farm in Fukuoka province. Despite the lack of industrial bases, agriculture continues to shrink., even food can't achieve self-sufficiency.

Since all kinds of industries are difficult to flourish, Nauru turned to try to "money making money" through financial means. Establishment of phosphate franchise use fee trust fundInvest in real estate and cultural projects in Australia.

Nauru has even tried to expand its grey income-since smaller Monaco can rely on gaming industryWhy not get rich?

In the 1990s, Nauru began selling passports starting at US$105,000 to obtain citizenship without residence; at the same time, foreigners could set up a licensed bank there for only US$25,000. This made Nauru one of the most important Tax havens and money laundering centers¡£

However, these ways to get rich ultimately failed. The value of the trust fund has shrunk tenfold in 10 years, from A $1.3 billion in 1991 to 138 million in 2002. Nauru's real estate in Australia, even the only Boeing 737 of Nauru Airlines, have been sold to pay off debts.

¡ø Picture note: The communication between small island countries and the outside world mainly depends on aircraft

(Photo: Yitu.com)

Gray income has not brought sustainable benefits either. Under the pressure of international anti-money laundering and capital outflow, Nauru Tax evasion law.The money laundering operation ended.

After 2000, driven by pro-Australian leaders, Nauru embarked on a more extreme path ¨C relying on Australia to ¡°drink and thirst.¡± Its outsourcing prisons and garbage disposal sites¡£

In order to obtain financial support from Australia, Nauru has set up an illegal immigration detention center to accommodate criminals who Australia refuses to accept and other groups regarded as "low-end population". There are 4183 detainees, close to 40% of Nauru's own population.

Just as Britain once deported prisoners to Australia, now Australia also Send unwilling personnel to Nauru¡£

Because Nauru is not able to self-sufficient, Australia also has it. Junk food is exported in large quantities.

Since the 20th century, with the introduction of foreign food by European colonists, the Nauru people gradually lost the traditional techniques of fishing and food preservation, fresh fish and vegetables gradually withdrew from the daily diet, replacing with high-salt, high-fat imported foods.

This set of factors has led to Nauruans having one of the highest obesity rates in the world: About 97% of men and 93% of women are overweight, the prevalence of diabetes also ranks among the highest in the world. In 2009, the average life expectancy for Nauru men was only 60.6 years and for women 68 years.

The Nauru people believe that fat is a symbol of wealth.

This mode of governing the country by drinking poison to quench thirst is what David Adeang strongly opposes. His first step after taking office was "Break off diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan Province authorities and resume diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

After resuming diplomatic relations with China, David Adion launched a series of cooperation models with China to help Nauru get rid of its dependence on resources.

l build a portTo make full use of the geographical advantages of the Pacific islands to develop the port economy.

l Development of new energyNauru is located about 42 kilometers south of the equator, with plenty of sunlight, through the development of photovoltaic power generation projects, the future can 50% renewable energy share.

l The rising sea level crisis.: Nauru established the China-Pacific Island Countries Cooperation Center for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation to provide disaster response training for Nauru.

l tackle obesityChina provides medical assistance to Nauru, builds sports centers and turns Nauru into a regional sports powerhouse, especially the Australian rules football program.

Australian football is Nauru¡¯s national football.

(Photo: Yitu.com)

David Adion passed these new policies, Got Nauru out of trouble, which is why he can be president of *.

Is it easy to be a foreign leader?

On a remote island as far away as the Pacific Ocean, Cantonese people have settled down, and some even became presidents. What is the historical origin behind this?

South Pacific island countries currently have about 80,000 permanent Chinese, most of them are Early indentured labor¡£ The development of these Chinese people is often closely related to their places and the background of the times.

¡ø Caption: The distribution area is too wide

The Pacific islands were once divided into German, British, French and AmericanThere are four types, and the fate of Chinese in different places is therefore different.

The German islands are mostly Europe's strongest selected, unimportant regionsIn general, the natural conditions of Papua New Guinea and Samoa, the Germans who arrived in the 1880s did not invest much energy in management, only the bird phosphorus mine of Nauru is considered an unexpected harvest.

After the defeat of Germany in the Pacific. The United Kingdom is hosted by the International Union.Britain returned to. New Zealand and Australia implement secondary trusteeship.

Chinese in Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati. Immigrated from Australia or other British colonies¡£ For example, Chinese Annuo Tang served as the president and foreign minister of Kiribati.

¡ø Picture note: This is actually the second generation immigrant

Chinese people in French Polynesia Mainly Hakka peopleTahiti Island (also known as Tahiti) is the most concentrated place of local Chinese, with about 35,000 people, accounting for 12% of the total population, and the Chinese economy accounts for more than 85%.

The U.S. Pacific region presents a different picture. 75% of Hawaiian Chinese come from Guangdong., mixed-race descendants of China descent account for 33% of the local population.

During Captain Cook¡¯s voyage in 1778. The Chinese sailors.At the end of the 18th century, there began to be Chinese settlements.At the end of the 19th century, when a large influx of Chinese arrived, Hawaii remained an independent kingdom.

It became a territory of the United States in 1898 and officially became a state of the United States in 1959. The Hawaiian Chinese contributed greatly to the Shanghai Revolution.It is now part of the Chinese American community.

The history of American Palau is more tortuous. It was successively occupied by Spain and sold to Germany. It was handed over to Japan after World War I. It was occupied by the United States during World War II. It was managed by the United States from 1947 until it became independent in 1994.

Palau currently has 1049 Chinese, accounting for approximately 4.9 percent of the total population, and is closely connected to the United States. The Chinese Gibbons, who served as a US military cook, became Chief of Palau Coroll in 1973 and was elected president three times; the other Chinese Chen Mengsa, who served as Vice President of Palau, was a Chinese-born Hawaiian.

In general, Chinese in the Pacific region are the largest leaders.For example, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Kiribati all had Chinese presidents, and Chinese in Samoa were also at the political core. However, the economies of these island countries are generally backward and even belong to the least developed countries. Nauru, once the richest country, has also declined.

¡ø Caption: Chen Zhongmin, the first Chinese Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea

Next is the former American Palau, the Chinese can serve as vice president or chief, because of the U.S. guardianship and the U.S. military position, the economic situation is slightly better.

Chinese in French Polynesia have the highest economic statusBut they did not enter political leadership.

The richest per capita is undoubtedly the Chinese in HawaiiAlthough he was politically marginalized after becoming a Chinese American, he gained favorable conditions for wealth growth due to Hawaii's integration into the United States.

* The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau

Cover: shutterstock

END