One Visit, Two Articles and My PhD Research on China–PNG Relations

By Bernard Yegiora

On 30 July 2026, I attended the Chinese Embassy’s Open House Day and the awarding ceremony for the “China in My Eyes” painting and video competition in Port Moresby. I attended because the event was relevant to my PhD research on China’s higher education exchange programs and their influence on relations between China and PNG.

That single visit later produced two articles for The Yegiora Files. The first, “How China Is Engaging PNG’s Next Generation”, examined the participation of students, particularly those from Butuka Academy. The second, “How China Presented Its Partnership”, considered the wider story communicated through cultural performances and photographic displays of China–PNG cooperation.

The two articles addressed different aspects of the same event. Reflecting on them together has helped me see more clearly why educational exchanges cannot be studied in isolation from the wider diplomatic environment in which they operate.

An Embassy display introducing the exhibition on the history and present state of China–PNG relations, Port Moresby, 30 July 2026. Photograph by the author.

Seeing educational diplomacy in practice

My PhD examines how China-related higher education exchange programs influence Sino–PNG relations. Its central concern is not simply how many Papua New Guineans receive scholarships or study Mandarin. It asks how participation in these programs may shape knowledge, professional development, people-to-people connections, perceptions of China and, ultimately, the bilateral relationship.

At the Embassy, these processes were visible in an everyday form. Students performed, engaged with Chinese cultural activities and interacted with Chinese officials and other guests. I briefly spoke with a Butuka Academy student who had performed with her group. She told me she was studying HSK Level 2 Mandarin.

That short conversation brought together several elements central to my research. The student was not studying in China, yet she was already participating in a China-related educational and cultural program in PNG. Language learning had created an entry point. The Embassy event then provided a setting in which that learning could be performed, recognised and connected to a wider bilateral relationship.

This illustrates why China-related higher education programs should not be understood only as courses or scholarship arrangements. They also create opportunities for contact, cultural exposure, institutional relationships and personal experiences. These may gradually influence how participants understand China.

Butuka Academy is not itself one of the higher education program categories examined in my PhD. My core study focuses on the Chinese Government Scholarship Program and Chinese-language programs. Butuka is nevertheless relevant as part of the wider educational environment surrounding those programs. Its students are encountering Mandarin and Chinese culture before entering higher education, and some may later pursue tertiary study or professional opportunities connected to China.

However, participation should not be confused with political conversion. Learning Mandarin, attending an Embassy event or receiving a Chinese scholarship does not automatically make someone supportive of China’s foreign policy. People retain their own judgement and may hold positive, negative or mixed views. Influence is usually more subtle: China becomes more familiar, personal networks expand, and participants acquire experiences through which they interpret the relationship.

From students to the wider story of partnership

The first article concentrated on young Papua New Guineans. The second widened the lens.

Inside the Embassy, guests stood and moved around as they listened to the Ambassador and watched cultural performances, including puppetry and magic. Outside in the courtyard, photographic panels presented Chinese-supported schools, scholarships, university facilities, medical teams, hospitals, agricultural assistance, community activities and commercial investment.

The physical arrangement was revealing. Inside, visitors encountered Chinese culture through performance and participation. Outside, they encountered an official account of China’s contribution to PNG’s development.

The displays connected education to a much larger narrative. Butuka Academy, the Confucius Institute, scholarships and Chinese-language programs appeared alongside the Enga Provincial Hospital, medical teams, Juncao technology, the Silk Road Ark hospital ship and the Ramu NiCo project. Together, they presented China not only as an education partner but also as a long-term development partner.

This matters for my research because educational diplomacy does not operate in a vacuum. A scholarship recipient’s perception of China may be influenced by the university experience, but also by what that person sees and hears about Chinese projects in PNG. Similarly, a Mandarin student may encounter China through language classes, cultural events, social media, Embassy activities and public discussion of Chinese investment.

Educational experiences therefore form part of a broader environment of public diplomacy. China’s projects provide the material record; cultural and educational activities make the relationship personal; and official communication connects these separate activities to the language of friendship and cooperation.

Clarifying the difference between programs, diplomacy and soft power

The visit also helped sharpen an important distinction in my thesis.

China-related higher education exchange programs are the actual initiatives through which people study, train or learn a language. These include the Chinese Government Scholarship Program and Chinese-language programs.

Educational diplomacy is the broader use of education to develop international relationships. It includes institutional partnerships, scholarships, language teaching, academic exchanges and the official presentation of those activities as bilateral cooperation.

Soft power is different again. It refers to the potential to influence others through attraction and perceived legitimacy rather than payment or coercion. An educational program may serve diplomatic objectives, but it produces soft power only when participants and wider audiences view the experience, institution or country positively.

The Embassy event displayed all three levels. The language and scholarship initiatives were the programs. Their connection to China–PNG friendship represented educational diplomacy. The cultural performances, personal engagement and positive presentation of China’s contributions created opportunities for attraction and goodwill.

The distinction is important because programs do not mechanically produce influence. Their effects depend on participants’ experiences, the quality of implementation, access to opportunities, PNG’s institutional context and the ability of participants to exercise their own agency.

Observation is not research data

There is also an important methodological boundary. Although I attended the event because it was relevant to my PhD, the visit was not formal data collection. The student’s comment was part of an informal conversation, not a research interview conducted under my approved research procedures. I have therefore treated it as a personal observation for public reflection, not as evidence from a research participant.

This distinction protects the integrity of the research. My PhD findings must rest on the data collected through the approved survey and interview processes, together with the relevant documentary evidence. The Embassy visit cannot be used to prove the study’s conclusions.

What it can do is sharpen interpretation. Observation can draw attention to connections that require explanation. It can help a researcher recognise how abstract concepts—educational diplomacy, people-to-people relations and soft power—appear in actual social settings. It can also expose questions that documents and statistics alone may not reveal.

One such question concerns historical accuracy. An Embassy display stated that China had provided scholarships to PNG for 40 consecutive years. Rather than simply accepting or rejecting that claim, I began seeking clarification about the history of the scholarship program and its earliest PNG recipients. This demonstrates how observation can identify a line of inquiry without itself becoming the answer.

What the two articles taught me

The two articles have reinforced my emerging understanding that China’s educational influence in PNG is indirect and cumulative.

It develops through repeated encounters: a scholarship, a language class, a lecturer, a classmate, a cultural performance, an institutional partnership or an Embassy event. No single encounter determines a person’s political position. Together, however, such experiences may create familiarity, professional networks, cultural understanding and bilateral goodwill.

This is consistent with the direction of my PhD findings. The influence of China-related higher education programs appears neither absolute nor insignificant. It is better understood as moderate, relational and dependent on context. Participants are not passive recipients of Chinese influence. They interpret their experiences through their own interests, identities, professional ambitions and understanding of PNG’s national priorities.

The Embassy event made this process visible. The students were not simply an audience for diplomacy; they were active participants displaying skills and cultural knowledge. At the same time, the Embassy placed their participation within a wider story about China’s partnership with PNG.

That is why the visit was relevant to my research. It did not supply formal research data, and it did not prove that educational engagement produces political loyalty. It provided something different: a practical illustration of the environment in which educational diplomacy operates and soft power may develop.

My task as a researcher is to move beyond impressions and test these relationships carefully. My task as a Papua New Guinean scholar is also to ask whether these exchanges strengthen PNG’s human capacity, expand genuine mutual understanding and support a bilateral relationship that serves PNG’s long-term national interests.

The two blog articles recorded what I saw. The PhD must explain what those observations may mean—and, just as importantly, what they cannot establish.