But such an audit is unlikely. For Guadalcanal and many other islands in the region, this is a moment to embrace competing offers from world powers, not spurn them.

It is a contest seen across the South Pacific in countries like Vanuatu, where a new wharf has spurred a heated debate about China’s ambitions, and even in communities far from major cities.

An hour or two inland from the Guadalcanal coast, along the Tina River, the World Bank hopes to build a hydroelectric dam that could drive down electricity prices. But more than a decade after it was proposed, the dam has yet to be constructed, leading World Bank officials to praise the legal precedents that have been set rather than the services they have provided.

Not far away, by contrast, is an obvious example of Chinese productivity: a large gold mine that was closed by an Australian company in 2014, then sold last year to a Chinese developer who made a fortune in Australian real estate.

The mine reopened in May, providing jobs — but in a riskier work environment.

Local tribes have discovered that the new owners are less careful about worker safety than the Australians. According to a monitor they sent to investigate, employees don’t wear goggles or safety boots as often as they should, and tasks that used to be closely monitored no longer are.

The company that owns the mine, the AXF Group, did not respond to requests for comment.

Asked whether the return of the mining jobs was worth the potential danger to workers, the tribes’ investigator, Densley Kesi, said he couldn’t be sure.

“The Australians had a lot of regulation,” he said. “The Chinese don’t. It worries me.”