Pacific nation Kiribati will begin voting in a general election this week, a poll that will test the strengthening ties between China and the government of the climate-threatened archipelago. The vote on Wednesday in tiny Kiribati — a country of scattered atolls and islands — has the potential to stir ripples across the South Pacific. Kiribati has drawn closer to China under longtime President Taneti Maamau, who is looking to extend his almost 10-year stint in charge. Beijing has been sending small teams of police to train Kiribati’s stretched forces in the lead-up to the election, a development that has raised eyebrows among Pacific watchers. “What China is doing is normalising its presence in the region,” said Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Blake Johnson. “We haven’t seen any kind of agreement that shows what they are doing there or how many there are,” he told AFP. “So it’s all a mystery.” In the past five years, Kiribati’s Pacific neighbours, Solomon Islands and Nauru, have also switched diplomatic recognition to China. The low-lying nation meanwhile faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as the rising sea levels that now regularly taint scarce drinking water supplies.