politics

Japan, Pacific nations share concerns over China's pact with Solomons

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stupid move by the SI

3 ( +11 / -8 )

China is just protecting its citizens after it businesses were looted and burnt down. Australia did practically nothing to help.

-10 ( +4 / -14 )

China is just protecting its citizens after it businesses were looted and burnt down. Australia did practically nothing to help.

Do you even care why the protests started? Do you even care about the safety of the Australian peace keeping force sent there to calm the crowd? They stuck to their mandate, ie lives prevail over properties, no matter whose' properties it belongs to. They quell the fire.

Sogavare is a traitor to his nation and all pacific nations in providing logistic for China to come and 'operate' in the region.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Correct Rodney. The Australian forces stood by while the local luted and burnt the Chinese properties. This is a fact. Morrison issued these orders directly to the contingency before they flew out to the Solomon’s my nephews tells me who was part of the contingency. Morrison know his direct intervention is the main cause of this signing.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

Australia have for decades mistreated the region with a mix of haughty UK-derived colonial arrogance, racism and exploitation. And now they're surprised that the SI wants to play ball with the Chinese?

-9 ( +3 / -12 )

Australia dropped the ball on this one letting the Solomon Islands fall to China.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japan, like some others, IE American allies, share concern about China and The Soloman Island security pack?? What, The Soloman Island is how far away from Japan??

While it goes around signing all sorts of security arrangments, with America/its allies??? Eg, last week arrangement with the UK? QUAD??

Come on, you are a sovereign state, do what you want, but, at the same time, do not comment when others do the same. Cut out the hypocrisies, perhaps, you can gain some integrity, then when you talk/comment, you will be taken a bit seriously. Not everyone in the world is a fool.

-9 ( +3 / -12 )

well.

they did not express "concerned" while they have exploited Solomons for decades or centuries and now when China wants do same-its "problem".

nice double standard-nice "western values"...

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

The difficulty in inviting the Chinese into your islands is that it comes with a lot of Chinese baggage - after all, they really only want to have a handy southern base for their warships and surveillance-ships to call in to anytime after they've put the deep-water harbours in place, and then extended-runways built into the ocean for their military aircraft and Spy-planes. This is the sort of 'infrastructure' and 'help' which they have in mind.

And when it's too late, and the Islanders have woken up to the aggressive Chinese expansionism, and then start protesting, they'll experience the full-force of the evil repression which is the Chinese normal modus operandi.

Can't help feeling that they would have been a lot happier as a nice quiet island-nation, sharing congenial relations with all their neighbouring countries in that region.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan, Fiji and Palau share the same concerns over a security pact China recently signed with the Solomon Islands

It is a good thing that Russia is not concerned about the moves by China to set up shop in the Solomon islands or they would no doubt invade the Solomon's to stop it. As they are doing right now to Ukraine because they do not like Ukraine getting cosy with western Europe.

Russia would no doubt support the US if it invades the Solomon islands as it shares the same ideology of stopping such outrageous happenings.

Solomon's have opened up a can of worms and it will find down the road that it really should not have let China in. They were having domestic issues, and they are about to turn international and much much worse.

Where ever China goes, troubles follow. One of the biggest destabilizing regimes in the world.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Australia didn't drop the ball or ignore the Solomon Islands. They are their primary source of foreign aid, responsible for 65% of the total foreign aid Solomon Islands receives. They are not acting like colonial overlords nor have they exploited them. Some of the comments above are informed only by prejudices and bad intent, not by facts.

Much of this problem has very little to do with anything Australia did or did not do. Rather it boils down to a competition for power within the Solomon Islands between current PM Manasseh Sogavare and the Premier of their most populous province, Malaite Province, Daniel Suidani. It is a continuation of the land dispute of the early 2000s and the riots that erupted after the 2006 election where Snyder Rini was elected PM against a backdrop that his campaign was financed by Chinese businessmen. The land and compensation dispute dates to 1998-ish by natives of Guadalcanal. The resulting fighting is the reason there was an eight nation peace keeping force in the Solomons to try to restore peace after fighting erupted. Keep in mind this land dispute involved natives of Guadalcanal demanding all alienated land titles, which had been leased to government and to individual developers, to be returned to landowners, including any other land acquired illegally. In opposition to this effort, a militant group called the Malaita Eagles was formed to protect the land and property of Malaitans living on Guadalcanal. Also note that Mr. Sogavare was bitterly opposed to the multinational peace keeping force because it was dominated by Australian forces while his successor PM Derek Sikua strongly supported it and was highly critical of Mr. Sogavare. So you have a land dispute with Guadalcanal natives on one side and Malaitans on the other on top of a belief that Honiara politics and national power are being bought by the Peoples Republic.

But then some chirpy poster on J-T says it's all Australia's fault.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So I guess the Pacific is this decade replacement for the Caribbean? It is very sad that the countries in the world have not learnt how to deal with this kind of situation in a better way even after having plenty of examples in the past.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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