Why PSTP Participants Are Central to My PhD Study on PNG–China Relations

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In examining how China’s HEEPs influence relations between PNG and China, I designed my PhD study to reflect the diversity of educational exchange pathways. Among the seven survey groups, the Public Sector Training Program (PSTP) cohort stands out as a critical focus—not just for their participation in short- and medium-term training in China, but also because of their role in implementing national policies back home. This group includes officers and professionals from the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA), National Department of Health (NDoH), and the Department of Defence and PNG Defence Force (DoD/DF).

A March 2023 news article from the Post-Courier highlighting China’s training of PNG officials in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) concept—an example of Public Sector Training Programs (PSTPs) shaping technical cooperation between the two countries.

These individuals are strategically important because they occupy positions within government systems where the knowledge, values, and networks they acquire abroad can be directly translated into policy and operational practice. Whether they were trained in leadership and management, public health, economic zone development, or security and defence diplomacy, their insights can reveal how China’s soft power operates through skills transfer and institutional capacity building. This complements my broader inquiry into how education diplomacy shapes PNG’s foreign policy thinking and institutional development.

From a methodological perspective, PSTP participants offer a different lens compared to undergraduate and postgraduate degree students. While scholarship students may experience China over longer academic periods, PSTP participants typically engage through targeted, sector-specific training often facilitated by ministries, embassies, or state-owned enterprises. Their training is more instrumental, technical, and immediate in relevance—making them ideal respondents for understanding applied diplomacy.

Moreover, these programs reflect China’s strategic intent to influence governance and sectoral reform through training. In PNG, public health collaborations, special economic zone initiatives, and military exchanges have all seen Chinese involvement. Training recipients are therefore not passive learners but co-producers of new policy norms and administrative routines. Their lived experiences—positive or negative—can significantly shape bilateral perceptions and future cooperation.

For example, SEZA officers who attend economic zone development training in China are being exposed to a model of growth and investment that directly aligns with China’s regional infrastructure strategies. Their perceptions, learning outcomes, and recommendations will help determine how PNG structures and markets its own economic zones. Likewise, NDoH staff trained in China’s public health systems may carry back policy insights on hospital administration, epidemic control, or community health outreach. In the case of DoD/DF personnel, their exposure to military diplomacy and language training can shape regional security engagement and joint operations.

Despite the importance of these groups, engaging them for data collection has posed serious challenges. Emails to key officials have gone unanswered, and gatekeeping at the department level has made it difficult to circulate the survey link. Nevertheless, I continue to engage with individual respondents through private networks, and I remain committed to capturing their voices—because they are not just trainees, but knowledge intermediaries operating between China and PNG.

As I approach the final phase of my survey, I encourage more participants from SEZA, NDoH, and DoD/DF to take part. Your insights are essential to helping policymakers, researchers, and international partners understand how technical cooperation and training are impacting PNG’s development. This research does not just seek to document China’s programs—it aims to amplify the voices of those who lived them, adapted them, and will shape their legacy in the Pacific.

In short, PSTP participants are key to this study not just because of who trained them, but because of what they do with that training in the context of PNG’s future.

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