How China is engaging PNG’s next generation

By Bernard Yegiora 

At the Chinese Embassy in Port Moresby on 30 July 2026, I stood beside two uniformed students from Butuka Academy and a visiting artist from Guangdong Province. We held up the small artworks we had painted during a hands-on cultural activity, surrounded by brightly decorated Canton enamel porcelain featuring flowers, birds and traditional Chinese designs.

The author with two Butuka Academy students and a visiting Guangdong artist during a cultural painting activity at the Chinese Embassy’s Open House Day in Port Moresby, 30 July 2026. (Photo courtesy of Bernard Yegiora)

The photograph captures a seemingly simple cultural encounter. However, it also illustrates how China is building familiarity with its language and culture among PNG’s younger generation.

I attended the Embassy’s Open House Day in connection with my PhD research on the influence of China’s higher education exchange programs on PNG–China relations. The event provided an opportunity to observe how cultural diplomacy complements China’s scholarships, language programs, professional training and educational partnerships in PNG.

The Open House Day was held alongside the awards ceremony for the “China in My Eyes” painting and video competition. It brought together around 200 Papua New Guineans, including politicians, public servants, academics, journalists and students from Butuka Academy and Paradise Secondary School. Among those present were public servants who had recently returned from training programs in China.

The program was deliberately participatory. Guests watched Cantonese Opera, martial arts, traditional dance, magic and puppetry. Students from Butuka Academy performed the Chinese song “As You Wish” and a traditional dance. Other participants experienced calligraphy, embroidery, paper-cutting, porcelain painting and traditional Chinese games.

During the event, I spoke informally with one of the students who had participated in the group performance. She told me that she was studying HSK Level 2 at Butuka Academy. HSK, or Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, is the standard proficiency framework used to assess learners of Mandarin Chinese.

Her brief comment provided a revealing insight. The students were not merely rehearsing a Chinese song for a diplomatic function. At least some were also formally learning the language. Their performance therefore reflected a deeper process of cultural and linguistic engagement taking place through the school.

This informal exchange was not a formal research interview, and the student is not identified. Nevertheless, it illustrated something easily overlooked when China’s engagement with PNG is assessed only through infrastructure, aid or official diplomacy: language learning is creating sustained contact with China at an early stage in students’ lives.

Cultural diplomacy operates through participation and personal experience. Visitors at the Embassy did not simply listen to speeches about China. They painted, sang, danced, played games and interacted with visiting Chinese artists. The “China in My Eyes” competition went further by encouraging Papua New Guineans to interpret China and express their impressions through paintings and videos.

A single event will not transform public opinion. China’s approach, however, is cumulative. Cultural programs operate alongside scholarships, Mandarin courses, public-sector training, school partnerships and professional exchanges. Each initiative introduces another group of Papua New Guineans to Chinese people, institutions and perspectives.

Butuka Academy demonstrates how these activities can reinforce one another. Officially known as the China–PNG Friendship School, the school was built with support from the Shenzhen municipal government and opened in 2018. Chinese-supported infrastructure, Mandarin instruction and recurring cultural activities give students sustained exposure to China during their formative years.

The Embassy’s Open House Day was followed on 31 July by the “Charming China (Guangdong): Lingnan Culture Travels to the South Pacific” program at Butuka Academy. Visiting Guangdong artists performed for PNG officials, diplomats, business representatives, academics and students. The program extended cultural diplomacy beyond the Embassy and into a school embedded within the local community.

Public-sector training operates at another level. PNG officials who travel to China receive technical and professional instruction, but they are also exposed to Chinese institutions, development achievements and policy narratives. They return with professional contacts and personal impressions that may be reinforced through subsequent diplomatic and cultural activities.

This does not mean that students or officials will automatically adopt favourable views of China. Papua New Guineans are not passive recipients of foreign influence. They interpret their experiences according to their own interests, values and circumstances. Cultural exposure can generate admiration, curiosity, indifference or criticism.

Nevertheless, familiarity matters in international relations. Officials may find it easier to engage with institutions they understand, while students may retain impressions formed through language learning and cultural participation. China is therefore helping to develop a constituency that is not necessarily pro-China, but increasingly China-literate and comfortable engaging with the country.

This is where soft power operates most subtly. It does not necessarily produce an immediate change in government policy. Instead, it can shape the social and intellectual environment within which future decisions are made. Language education, scholarships and cultural programs build relationships, knowledge and memories that may influence how future PNG leaders understand China’s place in their country and the wider region.

PNG should welcome educational and cultural opportunities offered by China and other international partners. At the same time, PNG institutions must equip participants to evaluate critically the political ideas, development models and diplomatic narratives they encounter. Greater national expertise on China, international relations and foreign languages would help PNG convert external engagement into informed domestic capability.

My brief conversation with the Butuka student gave the Embassy event greater meaning. She was not only performing a Chinese song; she was learning Mandarin at HSK Level 2. That connection between performance, language education and institutional partnership demonstrates the patient character of China’s engagement.

China is not waiting for PNG’s next generation of leaders to emerge. Through schools, language classes, cultural activities and educational exchanges, it is engaging them now.