France’s Pacific territory of New Caledonia will become a “colony of China” if it votes for independence this year, a leader of the island state has warned.

Philippe Gomès, the founder of the influential Caledonia Together party, issued the prediction amid rising concerns over Chinese expansionism in the region. A yes vote in this year’s historic referendum would leave it vulnerable, he warned.

“New Caledonia is too small to be secure if it became independent…It would become a colony of China,” said Mr Gomès, a former president of the New Caledonia government and one of its two MPs in the French National Assembly.

With a population of 270,000, the island nation lies 12,000 miles from Paris about 750 miles east of Australia. While small - around half the land mass of the Netherlands - it would be of interest to the Chinese as it is home to around a quarter of the world’s nickel deposits.

The dramatic claim by Mr Gomès, who is a former president of the New Caledonia government, came as French president Emmanuel Macron paid his first visit to the island, where tensions are running high over the November vote.