New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs needed to be more diverse and inclusive and have a more Pacific face, she said at the 48th Otago Foreign Policy School at St Margaret's College in Dunedin on Saturday.
''They'd be wise to talk less about leadership and...more about partnership and co-operation.''
Further extending scholarships, training projects and temporary work programmes such as helping in the rebuilding of Christchurch would all earn good will, she said.
''We need a modern, educated, sustainable Pacific in order when the perfect storm clears.''
Her talk, ''The Perfect Storm: the impact on New Zealand of China's ever growing influence in the South Pacific'', stemmed from a paper she co-wrote on the issue and her later book Looking North, Looking South.
''New Zealand's traditional Pacific influence is severely challenged by China's pursuit of interests in the region.''
China's interest came out of its endeavours to squeeze out Taiwan but now it was interested in expanding much more widely, she said.
Many Pacific governments actively courted China as it brought extra funding and infrastructure to their nations.
Its support in Fiji gave Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama's rule legitimacy.
Despite this, there was no overall strategy for its involvement in the region.
China nurtured the Pacific elite, offering financial aid, visits and scholarships to the point Beijing was the first point of call for many leaders. It also invested in everything from restaurants and grocery stores to mines and tourism. However, there was little capacity for the Pacific to ''absorb'' and ''moderate'' the down side to this investment.
''Many of their domestic problems are exported globally and the Pacific is ill-equipped to deal with the problems.''
China's offer of ''soft loans'' meant many Pacific countries could no longer get International Bank funding.
As a result, Chinese involvement would have an ongoing impact on Pacific society, economy and politics that would ''only increase in time'', she said.
