![This Solomon Islands province is so frustrated with China’s presence that it is considering independence This Solomon Islands province is so frustrated with China’s presence that it is considering independence](https://morningtopnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/200915174038-20200915-solomon-islands-independence-illo-super-tease-768x432.jpg)
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But the government didn’t listen.
Two days before the Honiara flight was due to land, Suidani announced an independence referendum for Malaita.
“Our conviction is that the … administration has become so obliged and indebted to China that it can no longer provide essential services to protect its citizens’ public health,” he said in a statement emailed to CNN. “It is time for Malaita people to see whether they are still willing to be part of a country (whose) leadership is becoming dictatorial.”
CNN reached out to the Solomon Islands’ central government for comment on the allegation that they are no longer looking after their people, but received no response.
China’s foreign ministry told CNN that the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Solomon Islands had been “open and fair.”
“Any rumors and slanders cannot affect the development of friendly relations between China and the Solomon Islands,” the spokesperson said.
The switch and the stadium
Now, some of that land has been earmarked for a new stadium bankrolled by China — and it has become the symbol of a new type of battleground.
The Solomon Islands had recognized Taiwan since 1983. In the years since, Taipei poured millions of dollars into the Solomon Islands, including in development projects such as a hospital, according to a paper by Clive Moore, a professor at the University of Queensland who specializes in the Solomon Islands. Taiwan also poured money into a slush fund for Solomon Islands politicians, Moore said.
The Solomon Islands had stayed loyal even as China’s checkbook diplomacy in the strategically important region prompted Pacific neighbors to switch allegiances.
But by 2019, the lure of a more economically beneficial relationship with China became too great. Jian Zhang, an expert in Asian security affairs at the Australian Defence Force Academy, told CNN that economic considerations were the key factor in the Solomon Islands’ decision. That was clear in Sogavare’s statement following the switch: “Our nation of Solomon Islands is bound to reap huge benefits never seen before in the history of our young nation, in this new relationship with PRC,” he said.
Now, China was reportedly promising that the relationship could be worth even more. The amount of financial support China promised to the Solomon Islands prior to the switch hasn’t been made public, however, in a Radio Taiwan International report, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Wu Zhaoxie was quoted as saying that in his understanding, China had promised around $500 million. It is not clear what form that that support would take.
CNN reached out to China’s foreign ministry and the Solomon Islands central government for comment. The Solomon Islands government did not respond.
It wasn’t a loan — it was a gift.
“The expectation is that entry of the pandemic would be a disaster,” Joseph Foukona, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii who hails from Malaita, said on September 3, as he explained why the flight was so unpopular.
Fears in Malaita
On September 1, before the flight landed, Suidani sent a statement to media in a Word document without any official letterhead, announcing that his province, a collection of islands with a population the size of Salt Lake City, would hold an independence referendum this month. CNN confirmed the authenticity of the letter. He pointed to the continued pressure from the “intimidating” central government to allow the Chinese Communist Party into the province. “No one should think that they have any monopoly powers to exert their bad decisions on us,” he said.
In an interview with CNN, Suidani said the central government’s sole responsibility was to take care of its people. “But what I’ve seen of the Solomon Islands government, this government doesn’t look after us.”
“We are just wondering whether the government is caring about people’s lives or thinking of the stadium, because we have seen that the government hasn’t heard the cries of the people,” Suidani said.
When CNN asked if China was concerned for its Solomon Islands-based citizens, the country’s foreign affairs ministry said it believed the Solomon government has the capability to deal with its own affairs.
Calls for independence
When Suidani made a call for an independence referendum, it wasn’t entirely out of the blue.
Those divisions have often been the fault lines of conflicts.
In Malaita, an independence movement has simmered for decades, due to long-standing feelings of marginalization from the central government, said Graeme Smith, an expert in China’s investment in the Pacific at Australian National University.
In the months before the charter flight, there had been signs of disagreement between the central government and Malaita, according to Foukona. CNN made multiple requests for comment from Sogavare’s government, but received no reply.
Last year, Suidani was one of the outspoken critics of rescinding official recognition of Taiwan, furthering tensions with the central government.
He was worried about Chinese businesspeople coming into the country and taking ownership of businesses and land away from local people — already, he tells CNN, he has seen Chinese people in the logging industry coming to Malaita and not respecting the local rules. “I believe in getting this illegal development out of Malaita,” Suidani said. CNN reached out to China’s foreign affairs for comment on the practices of Chinese in the logging industry and was told that the Chinese government “requires Chinese companies to abide by local laws and international rules.”
What all this means
In the aftermath of Suidani’s calls for a referendum, tensions have only ramped up in the small country.
“When government ignores the law, we are moving into the area of dictatorship. Solomon Islands is slipping into the direction of the one-party system of China as we have been warning all along.”
Even if Malaita’s independence vote doesn’t go ahead, it’s clear that the diplomatic rivalry between China and Taiwan has inflamed political instability in the country, Jian Zhang, an expert in Asian security affairs at the Australian Defence Force Academy, told CNN.
Both Taiwan and China have a history of engaging with subnational players, although there has been no suggestion from political players that Taipei has influenced the call for an independence referendum. Zhang says it’s possible that Taiwan’s relationship with Malaita could eventually see the Solomon Islands switch allegiances again — or, in the unlikely event that Malaita becomes an independent country, it could become Taiwan’s new diplomatic partner.
But if Malaita becomes a separate country, it will come at a cost. In an island where most people live on subsistence farming, University of Queenstown’s Clive Moore says it will most likely require a foreign power, like Taiwan, to help prop it up, at least to begin with.
It would also be tricky to extract the province from the rest of the country. The province is in a central position, and its population makes up around a third of the country. According to Moore, the province is so central to the Solomon Islands that a split would basically mean the “destruction of a nation.”
“If (Taiwan) really think a new nation in the Pacific could be their diplomatic friend, perhaps it’s worth a punt,” Moore said. “But encouraging it, it would destroy the Solomon Islands.”
Just as Taiwan will need to decide whether its search for allies is worth the instability, the Solomon Islands will need to weigh up whether its intensified ties with Beijing are worth the risk.
For now, the 104 people — including more than 80 Chinese nationals — who were on board the flight from China are serving out their state quarantine in the capital, Honiara. Only time will tell whether the instability that flight caused was worth it.
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