China has renewed efforts to curry favour in Pacific island nations, a new report has found, after charting a “resurgence” in Beijing-backed aid and infrastructure funding.

Over the past decade, China has lavished billions of dollars on Pacific island nations, part of ongoing efforts to build influence in competition with the US and its allies.

Having cut back on Pacific aid at the height of the Covid pandemic, China’s commitments have climbed in recent years, Australia’s Lowy Institute said in a new study.

“Beijing has emerged from a pandemic-induced lull with a more competitive, politically targeted model of aid engagement,” the thinktank said in its annual Pacific aid report on Wednesday.

“The uptick in Chinese spending has been accompanied by a resurgence in new Chinese project commitments, signalling a revival in its ambition to engage in major infrastructure works in the Pacific.”

Australia – traditionally the Pacific’s partner of choice – remained the largest donor.

But US funding now narrowly trails that of China, the second-largest bilateral donor in the region, authors Alexandre Dayant and Riley Duke said.

In 2022, the most recent year with complete data, China spent US$256m – up nearly 14% from three years earlier.

Australia spent $1.5bn, and the US spent $249m – both figures falling after a sharp increase the previous year.

There had been a noticeable shift in the way China engages throughout the region, the report found. Instead of splashing cash in a broad-brush approach, Beijing was increasingly zeroing in on a handful of friendly Pacific states.

Solomon Islands and Kiribati were singled out for school upgrades, new roads and government vehicles after severing diplomatic links with Taiwan in 2019.

Papua New Guinea, which signed a security agreement with the US in 2023, saw development funding from China dwindle.