Ah Hao, born and raised in Kiribati, is the "doyen" of the Overseas Chinese here. Taiwan's technical assistance team refers to him amongst themselves as "the richest man in the islands." On our first day in Kiribati, we are brought by ROC ambassador Benjamin Ho to Ah Hao's restaurant, where we enjoy a lavish dinner.

The term restaurant needs some clarification, however. The walls are wooden boards, the lighting is bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling, and the tableware is all plastic-as are the chairs! The small fridge where customers help themselves to canned drinks completes the uncanny similarity to the typical rough-around-the-edges rural eatery in Taiwan. Yet there is a real feast on display, from local seafood specialties, to vegetables grown and sold with the assistance of the Taiwan agricultural assistance team, to imported eggs and chicken (high-status "big spender" foods).

Ah Hao's business empire is not limited to this restaurant, or even to Kiribati. But he spends about half of each year in Tarawa to look after his fellow Chinese, whom he treats like family. The owners of more than seven Chinese restaurants and four large supermarkets have passed through Ah Hao's doors-either they formerly worked for him as chefs or assistants, or were only able to immigrate and get work permits because Ah Hao agreed to be their guarantor.

A wiry man with a strong Cantonese accent, Ah Hao says, "I knew poverty as a child, and can understand how hard it is to be in a new land. That's why, if I have the ability, I will help my fellows climb the ladder and make some money." His wife is also Chinese, and his children study in the international school in Tarawa, where English is the language of instruction. "I want them to get a good education so in the future they can go to New Zealand or Tahiti to live and work."

Ah Hao's parents came here from China, via Hong Kong and then Singapore, a half-century ago, and he was born on one of the smaller islands in Kiribati. As a child he helped at home and didn't have much schooling. At age 18 he set off for New Zealand to get into business, and now he has "more than 70 trading points in Asia, the South Pacific, and the US." Asked the secret of his success, he modestly replies, "I owe everything to the help of my smart-guy managers; I don't understand management, so as long as the other person tells me I've made money, and won't be in the red, I'm happy."

On the other hand, Ah Hao can't help complaining that he has yet to see any profit on his "investment" in Kiribati (his only return being the assistance he has been able to offer his brothers-in-arms to get their own businesses up and running). This, he says, is because local people do not work hard and have poor self-discipline, which is also why he goes all the way to China to bring in employees. In addition, administrative efficiency is poor in Kiribati, people have little money to spend, and costs for sea transport and import taxes are exorbitant.

In the eyes of Kiribati people, these Chinese who have brought in a "consumer-goods economy" and "Chinese tastes," work way too hard, and do little to integrate themselves into local society (such as joining in community events or church activities). Also, environmental activists consider them the "chief culprits" in importing plastic products. Nonetheless, they have become a pillar of the economy in Tarawa. Moreover, given the extended family culture of Kiribati, when a Chinese immigrant marries a local girl, he not only gets permanent resident status, he also takes on the obligation to support all the branches of the clan!