Solomon Islands lurch toward despotism as China debt deepens

ELIZABETH BEATTIE

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TOKYO -- For those anxious about China's growing influence in the Pacific, it is difficult to pick the most alarming development in the Solomon Islands over the past month.

The government has told the U.S. it will bar all American navy vessels from entering its ports, the U.S. embassy in Canberra said on Tuesday.

And there is the push to borrow nearly $100 million from China to finance Huawei-supplied mobile towers, there is the order that stories produced by public broadcaster SIBC must be approved by the government before publication, and then there is Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's attempt to delay the country's 2023 election.

These rapid developments, on top of a recently signed security deal with Beijing, raise fears that the country is lurching toward authoritarianism.

While a warm embrace between Sogavare and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during July's Pacific Islands Forum boded well for a more stable Pacific, the Solomon leader's embrace of China and more controlling approach to media have worried opposition leaders and regional bodies.

Officials call the relationship with Beijing a partnership, but critics say the power imbalance between China and the small Pacific nation with urgent economic needs is worrying.

At times, this dynamic has played out domestically, with politicians and residents voicing criticism over local contracts awarded to Chinese companies.

Alexandre Dayant, a project director and researcher on Asia-Pacific development economics at the Lowy Institute, noted on a 2019 trip to the capital, Honiara, that Chinese business owners sit prominently in positions of power on the city's main street.

"You would see a Chinese person sitting on a tennis umpire chair, dominating the shop, then you'd have the Solomon Islander workers in the aisles," Dayant said. "This created this distinction between the Chinese managers and owners, sitting above the Solomon Islanders."

A display case shows photos outside the Chinese Embassy in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on April 2. © AP

Since the security deal between the two countries, critics of the government have expressed concerns about the influence of China in their own country.

Celsus Irokwato Talifilu, an adviser to the premier of Malaita province, Daniel Suidani, told the Guardian newspaper earlier this year, "My main fear is [Chinese military or police personnel] put [Sogavare] in power for a long time."

Dayant said, "As we see different elements being added one after the other, this raises local tensions and could lead to an explosive situation."

As global attention and heightened international media scrutiny rains down on the Solomon Islands, Sogavare has attempted to stamp out criticism.

Last Monday, Australian public broadcaster ABC reported that the Solomon Islands' government had "hauled in" Australia's high commissioner following ABC reports on China's commercial and security ties with the country -- a move denied by the government.

On Thursday, the government threatened to block foreign journalists from entering the country if they criticized its ties to China, alleging this amounted to "racial profiling," the ABC reported.

On Friday, Georgina Kekea, president of the Media Association of Solomon Islands, tweeted that the media was "fairly free to do its job" and she was "thankful" to the government.

But Dorothy Wickham, editor and founder of the Melanesian News Network, said she has observed erosion of media trust in SIBC and local papers under the Sogavare government.

Journalists don't have access to government officials, which hampers their ability to hold them to account, and increasing abuse online is intimidating for younger reporters, she told Nikkei Asia.

"[The] government is always attacking them, claiming that their facts are wrong and they are not balanced and fair."

"The thing that drives me," Wickham said, "is there is still a lot of Solomon Islanders out there who support our work, who want the right information and dislike the fact [that journalists] are being picked on. That gives me optimism and hope and the drive to carry on and do what I do."

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at Reporters Without Borders, said the Solomon Islands had "gone from being a regional model of press freedom" to the opposite in just a few months. The public broadcaster is reduced to "the mouthpiece of the government."

China's national flag is displayed on a gate of a stadium construction site in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on July 21. © Kyodo

Biman Prasad, an academic and leader of Fiji's opposition National Federation Party, considered the Pacific Islands Forum a missed opportunity to emphasize issues of media freedom, human rights and democracy -- particularly by leaders from Australia and New Zealand.

Prasad, who was taken into police custody for voicing criticism of the Fiji government's push to amend land legislation in July 2021, argues that promoting and safeguarding democracy is critical as a preventive measure against authoritarianism.

"If you see declining standards of democracy in the Pacific, you don't blame [China]; they find it quite easy to deal with autocratic leaders and autocratic systems," Prasad said.

In order to combat this, Prasad urges leaders to "invest in the culture of democracy."

It appears that this notion is gaining steam. Last week, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China launched an Indo-Pacific forum for legislators to "enhance coordination in responding to China's growing influence in the region."

Australian Labor MP and IPAC Australia Co-Chair Peter Khalil told Nikkei Asia the stakes are high.

"We are in a contest between democracies around the world and the rise of authoritarian and autocratic states which diminish democracies and those values," he said.

"We see people fighting and dying for these freedoms in so many parts of the world, whether they're in Myanmar or Ukraine or democracy activists in Hong Kong. They understand it's about who we are, how we live, how we engage with each other and what kind of world we want to live in," he said.

"The sovereignty, the integrity and the freedom of the Pacific islands is a part of that. It's of great importance to all of us."