US Edges China Out of Race to Fund Bougainville Independence Vote

Locals wave farewell to departing troops after a ceremony in Arawa marking the withdrawal of peacekeepers from the troubled Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville, on June 30, 2003. The ceremony also signaled the establishment of a civilian peace monitoring team to replace the Australian-led Peace Monitoring Group operating on the war-ravaged island. Nathan Richter/AFP via Getty Images

SYDNEY—The United States and its Pacific allies have plugged a funding gap that endangered next month’s independence referendum in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) region of Bougainville, a strategic move that also sidelined China, two sources told Reuters.

Western nations are looking to rein in China’s influence in the increasingly contested Pacific, where it has recently drawn away two of Taiwan’s allies, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, triggering a strong rebuke from the United States.