As China opens embassy in Solomon Islands, a bitter feud over values fuels separatist bid
When China officially opened its embassy to the Solomon Islands this week, exactly a year after wooing the Pacific Island nation away from Taiwan, there were smiles all around.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the diplomatic switch to Beijing had been the "right thing to do" and put the archipelago of about 690,000 people on the "right side of history".
"Today marks a new era of relations that signifies the permanent friendship of the People's Republic of China and the Solomon Islands, as co-members of the United Nations," local media reported Sogavare saying on Monday during an opening ceremony in the capital Honiara. "It involved correcting the mistakes of the past and respecting each other's territorial boundaries."
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Li Ming, the new Chinese ambassador, said Beijing's establishment of ties with the country, which lies about 1,800km (1,118 miles) east of Papua New Guinea, conformed to "the trend of the times and benefits the two peoples".
At the same moment about 100km away - authorities in Malaita, the most populous of the country's nine provinces - were in the middle of preparations for an independence referendum fuelled by growing suspicion and acrimony towards China.
The planned vote, which Malaita's Premier Daniel Suidani says could take place within weeks, marks the culmination of a long-running bitter feud between provincial and central authorities related to government representation and lagging development. Honiara's ties with Beijing and its embrace of Chinese investors have further aggravated these divisions. The ructions - occurring as they have amid growing competition for influence in the Pacific between China and the United States with its allies - highlight the difficulties facing outside powers who wish to win friends and exert influence in Pacific Island nations with complex histories and internal politics.
"Malaita independence has always been simmering but the national government's perceived disregard of Malaita's, and to a greater extent the nation's, voice on the switch would have played a big part in pushing Malaita towards looking more seriously at independence," said Peter Kenilorea Jnr, one of the nation's opposition MPs.
The nation's switch of allegiance in September last year sparked an immediate backlash in Malaita, which is home to about one-quarter of the population but remains chronically underdeveloped compared to the neighbouring island of Guadalcanal where the capital is located. Malaitan officials complained that they had not been consulted. They pointed to how China's lack of democracy, suppression of Christianity and allegations it has engaged in debt trap diplomacy did not gel with the aspirations of its residents, which were laid out in a communique issued last October.
Malaita's Premier Daniel Suidani, who has vowed to oppose any loans or investment from China, has accused government MPs of trying to bribe him into accepting the switch. When that failed, he claimed ex-militants from the country's 1998-2003 ethnic conflict were sent to the province for the purposes of intimidation.
A graphic showing Pacific island nations' diplomatic allegiances vis-a-vis Beijing and Taipei. Image: SCMP alt=A graphic showing Pacific island nations' diplomatic allegiances vis-a-vis Beijing and Taipei. Image: SCMP
Tensions came to a head earlier this month over a chartered flight from Guangzhou. Although billed as a repatriation flight, only 21 of the 104 passengers on board were Solomon Islanders. The rest were Chinese embassy staff and workers involved in the construction of venues for the 2023 Pacific Games, according to a passenger list obtained by Radio New Zealand. Despite assurances from the central government in Honiara that all passengers would have to test negative for Covid-19 and then undergo quarantines, the flight sparked outrage in the Solomon Islands, which has so far had no cases of the virus.
Two days before the flight touched down on September 3, Suidani promised to give people in his province a chance to vote on whether they wanted to be part of a country whose "leadership is becoming dictatorial".
"People are of the view that the government is more supportive of Chinese," said Celsus Talifilu, an adviser to Suidani.
"Not only that but I think there is a current perception amongst many people in the Solomons that the government has been bought by China, although it is very difficult to ascertain any evidence."
Talifilu said the referendum would be a survey of people's views and could lead to the introduction of arrangements that, while falling short of full-fledged independence, would see the province "independently manage some of its affairs".
"It depends on how the negotiations happen," he said, adding that he expected the vote to take place by next month. "From the Malaita perspective, it's not going to be an easy one."
Even before the controversial switch of allegiance, Malaita had a history of turbulent relations with the country's central authorities, with several of the province's premiers raising the possibility of independence over the last two decades. The Solomon Islands, which gained independence from Britain in 1978, consist of six major islands and more than 900 smaller ones that did not consider themselves a unified country until being grouped together as a "protectorate" by the British in the late 19th century. The nation is now home to more than 60 languages and dialects.
Central authorities in Honiara have declared Malaita's proposed referendum illegal and warned the provincial authorities that they could be taken to court. The office of Prime Minister Sogavare did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last October. Photo: Reuters alt=Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last October. Photo: Reuters
Chinese investment has poured into the Solomon Islands since it cut ties with Taiwan - with which Beijing opposes having diplomatic relations at all - including a US$825 million proposal from the Chinese state-owned China State Railway Group to develop the Gold Ridge gold mine.
Other bids have proved more controversial. Under a deal signed just days after the switch, real estate company China Sam Enterprise Group was granted a lease for Tulagi Island - a key outpost for allied forces during World War II - before Honiara authorities deemed the agreement illegal.
Meanwhile, the US and Australia, which have both raised concerns about Beijing's growing presence while strengthening their own aid and diplomacy in the Pacific, have signalled interest in developing a deep water port in Malaita. Pacific Island countries, beyond their strategic location, account for four of Taiwan's 15 remaining diplomatic allies - making them attractive targets for Beijing's outreach efforts.
Michael Salini, a businessman and commentator based on Tulagi, said the islands' national government needed to meet with locals in Malaita and other provincial areas to explain the country's ties with Beijing, as he said many locals could probably be persuaded of the relationship's benefits if genuine investment and development were the result.
"Some people even go as far as thinking once the Chinese come in, they take over the country - they build a military base in the country. We don't want those things," Salini said.
"There is so much confusion and there is so much frustration going on."
Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, pictured in October 2019. Photo: Xinhua alt=Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, pictured in October 2019. Photo: Xinhua
Although perhaps not as pronounced as in Malaita, anti-China sentiment can be found throughout the Solomon Islands, which maintained relations with Taiwan for more than three decades before last year's switch.
In 2006, Beijing evacuated several hundred ethnic Chinese after corruption allegations involving both China and Taiwan sparked attacks on businesses in Honiara's Chinatown.
"These suspicions are due largely to people's past experiences with China," said Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, the Solomon Islands-born director of the Centre for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. "These have mostly been with Chinese citizens, entrepreneurs and companies. Most Solomon Islanders therefore view and understand China through these interactions. These have predominantly been negative with some Chinese entrepreneurs [seen] as taking businesses away from Solomon Islanders - crowding them out of these sectors."
Chung Chien-peng, a professor at Lingnan University who has researched China's engagement with Pacific Island nations, said the tensions in Malaiti could potentially fuel the building rivalry in the Pacific between Beijing and Washington.
"If the Solomon Islands' government tries to quell this independence move, if it is for real, we may witness a proxy war between the Chinese and the Americans in this corner of the South Pacific," Chung said. "Although Papua New Guinea is bigger and more important to China, the Solomon Islands is also an anchor of Chinese economic and security influence in the South Pacific."
Whether independence for Malaita is a realistic, feasible proposition is another issue entirely, however.
"Malaita Province is too interconnected with the rest of Solomon Islands to consider a bid for independence," said Clive Moore, an emeritus professor at the University of Queensland whose published work focus on the Pacific nation. Describing the moves by the province as "posturing" and "playing politics", he said that "not only is Malaita the most populous province but Malaitans make up more than half the citizens of Honiara, the capital city."
Either way, the rumblings in Malaita are a lesson in the care that outside countries must take when seeking to make inroads in the Pacific, said Kenilorea Jnr, the opposition MP.
"I think it underscores the challenges that Beijing faces in winning over the hearts and minds of very independent and, with the added ethnic diversity, often stubborn Pacific peoples who are themselves adjusting to their own challenges of nation building," he said.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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