The ink has barely dried and the pockets barely greased on China’s gibsmedat deal with the Solomon Islands and Beijing’s malign influence is already being felt.
Around the world, the Xi regime has been using debt-trap diplomacy and the folly of greedy tinpot panjandrums to buy influence and bring developing countries under its heel. Where Western nations were guilted into forgiving mendicant Third World countries’ debts, China simply takes over the “development” infrastructure it so generously “loaned” money for.
Political strings are also firmly attached to China’s money. Not least the expectation of toeing the Chinese Communist Party’s censorious “Harmonious Society” line.
The Solomon Islands government is moving to sack and replace the board of the national broadcaster, but has dismissed claims it is going to take control of its editorial policies.
Concerns have been mounting over the fate of the independence of Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) since it became a fully government-funded entity.
Last month, the government removed the public broadcaster as a state-owned enterprise (SOE), saying its reporting was causing disunity in the country.
The last thing Beijing will tolerate is “disunity” — by which it really means, “criticism of the CCP” and its cronies.
Journalists have complained that the Prime Minister’s office has become increasingly opaque since Solomon Islands signed a controversial security pact with China.
When China’s Foreign Minister toured the country in May, Solomon Islands media boycotted a press conference because they were collectively only allowed to ask one question, and only to their own Foreign Minister.
They also struggled to get information about the timing of the visit and agreements being signed between the two countries.
ABC Australia
Someone is also apparently stoking 80 year-old grievances in order to take a kick at China’s regional rivals.
Eighty years after their countrymen fought each other in the Battle for Guadalcanal, two American servicemen have rushed to save a Japanese Navy sailor who was stabbed in a bizarre incident in the Solomon Islands.
After a local man attacked the Japanese Navy photographer during a Guadalcanal campaign service on Monday […] A Japanese official told New Zealand website Stuff that the victim had a stab wound on the right side of his neck but was not seriously injured.
It’s purely coincidental, of course, that Japan is a member of the Quad grouping, an informal alliance aimed at curbing Chinese expansion in the Pacific.
It’s also no doubt coincidental that the Solomons PM ostentatiously snubbed even his nation’s allies who shed so much blood in the Solomons, in WWII.
The incident followed a weekend Dawn Service, which Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare declined to attend.
Local media described his decision as a “snub” after he was listed in the official program.Mr Sogavare’s relationship with Australia and the US has been strained in recent times over his close relationship with China.
Ms Sherman, who later had a closed-door meeting with Mr Sogavare, said she was disappointed he did not attend the event, to commemorate the strength of the bonds between the countries “that allowed for freedom in Solomon Islands”.
ABC Australia
Well, I mean, it’s a whole 30 minutes drive from the capital. The PM is no doubt too busy counting China’s money to be bothered with honouring those who gave their lives for his country.