2018 became the first pacific country to sign a memorandum of understanding for chinas trilliondollar belt and road initiative a defining geopolitical project for president xi jinpingin the following year major chinese companies operating in png mostly stateowned enterprises shot up from 21 to 39 according to peter connolly who is researching chinas pacific projects at the australian national universityat a chinese minimart covered in metal bars to protect workers from armed robberies manager vincent he said voiced support for more workers coming to pngthere are some jobs they just cant do they cant help us said the businessman from chinas fujian province switching from english to mandarin so locals cant understand himi dont know why they talk like this we must have our own chinese people doing it herebut growing chinese business activity is feeding resentment because locals fear for their economic and employment security said sinclair dinnen associate professor at the australian national universitythey say relatively welloff chinese migrants do not mix with society send their earnings home and dont put it back into a country where around 40 percent live below the bread linethe opportunity is not given to us if we continue this soon we wont have a place to work said heather yaninen 60 who runs a cosmetics stallthey will come in and take everything