New China-Solomon Islands Police Deal Trigger Concerns
VOAJul 12, 2023
Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare's office on Friday said that the Chinese police would add to the existing Australian and New Zealand support for its 1.5K officers, cooperating to enhance their capabilities in cyber security and community policing.
The statement further demanded that critics respect the country's sovereignty, stressing that it fails to understand how improving the traffic control and management system in Honiara and completing the Forensic Autopsy Lab and police equipment can undermine peace and stability in the Pacific.
Despite the US opening an embassy in the country and pledging $810M to fight climate change and maritime security, the Solomon Islands under Sogavare's government has decided to distance itself from longstanding Western allies and pursue relations with China. If Sogavare wants his country to remain sovereign, it would be wiser for him to consider what China will use these security pacts for with respect to its expansionist goals in the region.
The Western powers are throwing a tantrum not because China is nefariously using diplomacy as a means to achieve military expansion but rather because it has conducted mutually beneficial deals with the Solomon Islands. The West does have a history of relations with the nation, but that history is of colonization and exploitation. Beijing, on the contrary, is looking to boost the islands' and its own security and economic prospects for the betterment of the whole region.
There's a 23% chance that the Solomon Islands will host a Chinese military base before 2032, according to the Metaculus prediction community.