Revisiting Pacific Island Countries Studies within Area Studies: A Decade in Review and Prospects (2016–2026)

Abstract

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) matter as geostrategic players in the Indo-Pacific maritime region for two main reasons: they are key players in global climate governance, and they offer good cases for studying small states in Area Studies. This paper looks at how Chinese-language research on PICs has developed over time. It uses 154 articles from Chinese core journals indexed in CNKI and six overseas SSCI papers, all published between 2016 and 2026. CiteSpace 6.4.1 is used to do a bibliometric analysis of publication trends, productive authors, keyword clusters, and keyword bursts. The study finds three phases of research development: initial accumulation, rapid expansion, and diversified deepening. The research focus has shifted from China–Pacific economic ties to great-power competition in the Indo-Pacific, indigenous Blue Pacific narratives, ocean-climate governance, and disciplinary reflections from a Global South perspective. The current research has several weaknesses: it tends to focus on some countries more than others, relies too much on Western theories, lacks sufficient original fieldwork, and suffers from weak inter-institutional cooperation. This paper reviews ten years of Chinese PIC studies, and evaluates their structural weaknesses against the standards of Area Studies. It offers empirical evidence for building an independent knowledge base for Chinese Area Studies, and helps guide the long-term development of China's Blue Partnership with the PICs.