Beijing enhances power in the South Pacific by signing pact with the Solomon Islands to challenge the USA in the region

China is close to sign a controversial defense pact with the Solomon Islands. The pact will turn the tiny Melanesian nation into a logistical hub for Chinese warships in a strategic region of the Pacific Ocean. The pact also stipulates a training role for Chinese police and military personnel, who are called to “assist  in maintaining social order” in the island nation.

The Solomon Islands is an archipelago consisting of nearly 1,000 islands of various sizes in an area northwest of Vanuatu and east of Papua New Guinea. It gained its independence from Britain in the mid-1970s. 

Australia has historically provided security for this island nation of 700,000 inhabitants, which has no standing military. 

However, China has become a dominant player in Solomon Islands politics in recent years. In 2019, the government of the island nation abruptly withdrew its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and aligned itself with Beijing. Taiwan accused China of bribing the notoriously corrupt Solomons. 

For decades, the region has been at the center of a diplomatic contest over Taiwan. Only four Pacific Island countries maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan: the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, and Tuvalu. The Solomon Islands and Kiribati were the latest to switch their ties from Taipei to Beijing, in 2019.

In late March, the text of a defense pact between the Solomon Islands and China appeared online. The pact centers on law enforcement and military cooperation, involving training programs and joint exercises between the two nations. 

It is highly likely, that China could use the agreement to build a military base in the Solomon Islands. 

A clause in the agreement says that China can “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replacement in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands,” as well as send Chinese forces to the country to “protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects.” This has stoked concerns in the United States and its allies in the region that China could send troops to the Solomon Islands and establish a permanent military base there, less than two thousand kilometers from Australia.

Chinese Foreign Minister and state councillor Wang Yi is likely to make a visit to Solomon Islands in coming weeks in late of May or start of June, in another sign Beijing is intent on cementing security and commercial ties with the Pacific island nation while Canberra is consumed by the federal election.  The visit might also provoke protests in Solomon Islands y those from the pro-Taiwan province of Malaita –flooded Honiara with unpredictable results.

Solomon Islands government sources say preparations are underway in Honiara for Mr Wang’s visit.

In November 2021, Riots rock the Pacific Solomon Islands. The protestors who disagree with the policy of the government and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, have set fire to the parliament building and looted stores in capital’s downtown area. 

The move sparked concerns in Malaita, the Solomons’ largest island, which is home to a sizeable Chinese community. There were demonstrations against Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in the capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara. There were also attacks on Chinese-owned businesses in the capital, as well as on a number of police stations, which were set on fire. Eventually, Australian, New Zealander, Papuan and Fijian troops restored order in downtown Honiara.

The Chinese government views the Pacific Island region as an important component of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Specifically, it sees the region as a critical air freight hub in its so-called Air Silk Road, which connects Asia with Central and South America.

China’s engagement with Solomon Islands island countries unlikely poses threat to Australia. 

This is the implicit message to the region would be that America can no longer be relied upon to exercise leadership.

China would acquire a base in the Pacific to show that the US is powerless to stop it.

 China is determined to establish a sphere of influence, a geographical area over which it exercises unquestioned authority and in which other great powers do not interfere. It would be impossible for China to establish a sphere of influence in the Asia Pacific without foreign bases because it is otherwise prohibitively expensive and difficult to project military power over the region’s vast distances.