PACIFIC CHINA FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION
The Princess Royal, Her Royal Highness, Princess Salōte Mafile’o Pilolevu Tuita
Permanent Patron and Board Chairperson
There has been a long history of far more than friendship between China and the Pacific.
The cradle of the Pacific’s Polynesian ancestors, according to archaeology, linguistics, botany, and
science, is to be found not in South America, but along the eastern coast of China.
3500 years ago, the common ancestor, the Austronesian, began a unique exploit in human history:
the systematic settlement of the Pacific, the world’s largest ocean: 160 million square kilometers,
20,000 kilometers wide at the equator, covering an area double that of the Atlantic.
This was also the first technology-based migration: those ancestors constructed ocean-going
outrigger sailing canoes and applied sophisticated knowledge of the environment: the ocean, celestial
navigation, fishing, and food processing.
This document represents the collective vision of many Pacific nations, desiring to live, work and
thrive in the Pacific region.