Who can forget the unedifying sight of Jacinda Ardern, pontificating and mugging for the adoring press, at the 2019 Pacific Islands Forum? But Ardern wasn’t only playing to the cameras: watching with smirking approval as she lambasted Australia was the Chinese delegation. The Pacific panjandrums just held their hands out as usual.
Now New Zealand is having to join Australia in dealing with the fallout, as the chickens of gibsmedat come home to roost, yet again, in the Pacific. New Zealand and Australia are sending troops to restore order in the Solomons — in no small part due to China’s lavish funding of corrupt Pacific leaders.
Payments from a Chinese slush fund are being used to lock in the support of MPs for Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, ahead of a no-confidence motion in his leadership on Monday that could set off further violence in the country.
This is how Chinese debt-diplomacy works, around the world. The US, for instance, has often been criticised for sending foreign aid to despotic regimes: but, in their defence, the US at least tried to link aid to reform. At worst, they sometimes backed what they judged to be the lesser evil. This is what is known as “the problem of dirty hands”.
China, on the other hand, just hands over wads of cash, with no questions asked. The only return is usually securing exclusive Chinese interests, which often end up trapping developing nations into becoming ersatz Chinese colonies.
The promised payments from the country’s National Development Fund, worth $SBD250,000 ($44,000), will allegedly only be paid to those who back Mr Sogavare in the looming vote, according to multiple Solomon Islands MPs.
Mr Sogavare has complete discretion over payment of the Chinese-supplied cash, which is transferred directly into MPs’ bank accounts […]
The NDF was initially set up by Taiwan before the Solomon Islands’ diplomatic switch to China in 2019. It was intended to provide funding for specific development projects as directed by the prime minister of the day. Money for the fund has since been provided by China […]
Opposition Leader Matthew Wale said […] funds from “the same China money” had been allocated a week before the November riots to two MPs to hold for ex-militants from Guadalcanal and Malaita to keep the lid on planned protests. He said Guadalcanal former militants were promised $SBD1m to help keep the peace before last week’s riots, while the same amount was pledged to Malaitan ex-militants to stay out of the civil unrest sparked by fellow Malaitans.
Now, Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific nations are being asked to clean up the mess.
Mr Sogavare – a longtime critic of Australia who has forged strong relations with China – requested the foreign security presence under a 2017 treaty with Australia, amid rioters’ demands for his resignation.
The capital was hit by widespread looting and the torching of at least 56 buildings last month, with losses estimated at $SBD227m, after a rampage by protesters from Malaita Province and others dissatisfied with the Sogavare government […]
While Scott Morrison has declared Australian personnel will be in the country for a matter of weeks, Solomon Islanders are referring to the foreign presence as “RAMSI 2” – a reference to the decade-long Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands that cost Australian taxpayers $2.6bn.
The Australian
The proximate aim of China’s largesse in the Pacific, as around the developing world, is simple influence-buying. Superpower-dom requires not only military strength, however overwhelming, but concomitant cultural and diplomatic clout — something China, unlike the US, simply does not possess. So, China is resorting to buying friends — or, at least, vassals.
A more conspiratorial thinker might argue that it is also part of China’s preparations for war with Taiwan. Taiwan’s potential defenders are, one by one, being distracted by a series of fires lit by China: from the pandemic to Pacific instability.
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