Fiji's prime minster has raised concerns about allegations of Chinese espionage.
Sitiveni Rabuka is investigating claims that the Chinese government spied on a senior Pacific leader while he was visiting Fiji.
Rabuka became Fiji's prime minister for the third time last December. He led two military coups in the South Pacific nation in 1987 and led the country in the 1990s.
His government is investigating allegations from the outgoing president of the Federated States of Micronesia, David Panuelo, that Chinese agents followed him during a recent trip to Fiji.
Panuelo has been a vocal critic of Beijing. Last month, he wrote to Micronesia's legislature accusing China of spying, bribing local politicians and attempting to subvert the nation's sovereignty.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp's The Pacific program, Rabuka stressed the allegations of espionage in Fiji were not yet proven, but they were being taken seriously.
"For someone to feel threatened by another power while in the dominion of Fiji, is almost a slap in the face," Rabuka said. "So, we need to be sure that actually happened and if it did happen how do we address it?"
There has been no response so far to the allegations from China.
It has had bilateral security and policing agreements with Fiji for more than a decade.
But Rabuka has continued his predecessor's gradual diplomatic shift away from Beijing. Earlier this year he canceled a key law enforcement accord with China because of differences between the two countries' legal systems.
Rabuka told Australian media that Beijing should continue to be a "development partner" in Fiji.
In 2022, China signed a security accord with Solomon Islands, a strategically located, mostly Melanesian chain of islands northeast of Australia.
China failed to persuade other nations to join a broader region accord, but Australia and its allies are concerned about Beijing's military and diplomatic ambitions in the South Pacific.
Australia has intensified its efforts in the region in the past year since the election of a center-left government in Canberra.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong conceded that Pacific leaders had been "ignored" and "disrespected" by Australia in the past.
Echoing the concerns of Pacific leaders, Wong said that climate change was an 'existential threat' to the island nations.
