** 12-Jun-2022 World View: China 'invades' Solomon Island, while making Taiwan threats
- Solomon Islands map (Australian National University; CSIS)
China has been increasing military action around Taiwan, and this
weekend once again threatened war over Taiwan. China also demanded
that US ships stay out of the Taiwan Strait, which is international
waters. However, a new area of concern in the Asia Pacific is rising.
China and the Solomon Islands announced a security agreement in April.
Although some of it has leaked, much of it is still secret, which is
standard practice for extortionary agreements by the Chinese
Communists.
The concern across the region is that the agreement will turn into a
naval base for China, extending China's reach from its illegal
occupation of the South China Sea to much of the Asia Pacific, and
from there to link with South America. Both China and the Solomon
Islands deny that there are any plans for a military base. But we
know that the Chinese Communists are sleazebags who lie about
everything. And we also know that the Chinese Communists use various
forms of corruption, including bribery and extortion, to convince
national leaders to do as China demands.
In fact, we already know that corruption is heavily involved. The
current scenario began in September 2019, when Prime Minister Manasseh
Sogavare, in his office in the capital city Honiara on the main island
of Guadalcanal, made the sudden decision to switch the nation’s
diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. Allegations of
corruption proliferated. A few days after that shock announcement, it
came to light that a Chinese company had been granted a 75-year lease
on an entire island, Tulagi, without landholder knowledge or consent.
Chinese firms continued to enjoy favored status after that.
It also became known that other Solomon Island lawmakers were being
bribed with cash payments from the China-funded National Development
Fund, over which Sogavare has complete discretion.
There were some anti-Chinese protests in Honiara, but the strongest
objections came from the people on another island, Malaita, the most
populous island, who had received aid from Taiwan.
The crisis began in ernest on November 24, 2021, when Sogavare refused
to meet with protestors from Malaita. During the riots, businesses
were looted and then torched, predominantly in Honiara’s Chinatown,
where three bodies were found. Solomon Islands had a security
agreement with Australia, and Australian troops came in to control the
violence.
The videos of Australian troops protecting Chinese people from
violence by locals played across China on social media, and were very
humiliating to the Chinese Communists. This led to further bribery
and extortion, with the result that the secret security agreement was
announced in April.
According to an analysis by Lowy Institute, the Chinese Communists
also wanted the new security agreement urgently because of domestic
economic reasons:
"While China was unsuccessful in gaining endorsement
of [a five-year common development plan with ten Pacific Island
nations] by Pacific Island leaders, the unconcealed ambition and
urgency of its mission correlates with domestic anxieties about an
economic slowdown and rising unemployment in the vast nation of
1.4 billion people. Covid-19 lockdowns this year, an ageing
population and diminished productivity in recent years have also
contributed to a slide in China’s GDP growth from 8.1 per cent in
2021 to a projected 5 per cent this year. The Lowy Institute
further predicts a potential long-term decline in China’s growth
to 3 per cent per year by 2030. Meanwhile, China’s current
national unemployment rate is reported to be 6.1 per cent, up from
5.2 per cent in 2019, and youth unemployment is more than double
that at 18.2 per cent.
Since the 1980s, the natural resources of Pacific Island
countries, especially Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, have
contributed to productivity and growth in China.
The state of economic affairs prompted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
to call an urgent meeting of party officials across the country
last month to accelerate action towards returning the economy to
higher growth. “We must seize the time window and strive to bring
the economy back to the normal track,” Keqiang was reported to
have said."
---- Sources:
-- China-Solomon Islands pact: Reading between the lines
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-inter ... ween-lines
(Lowy Institute, 8-Jun-2022)
-- What the China-Solomon Islands Pact Means for the U.S. and South
Pacific
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/china-solo ... th-pacific
(Council On Foreign Relations, 4-May-2022)
-- The Deep Roots of the Solomon Islands’ Ongoing Political Crisis
https://www.csis.org/analysis/deep-root ... cal-crisis
(CSIS, 21-Dec-2021)
-- John Quincy Adams / First State of the Nation, Washington, DC,
1825-12-06
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/jo ... n-1825.php
(University of Groningen, Netherlands, 6-Dec-1825)
