China Debt Trapping/Bribes Solomons for Island Bases

Kolombangara Island (in the Solomons). China (the PRC) is interested in Kolombangara for a Naval and  Air Base. Kolombangara is the circular volcanic island (above left-center on map courtesy NASA). Chinese bases on Kolombangara would be ideal for bombers, medium range missile strikes and to support part of a naval blockade of Australia. 

Also China's NSA perhaps out of China's Embassy, Honiara, may have improved interception opportunites of mobiles and landline telephony within the Solomons and tapping the Coral Sea Cable which is shared with PNG-Sydney-Solomons. 

While the AUKUS deal seems to have caught China’s attention, their efforts in the South Pacific have done the same for Australia.

If this story on Four Corners is correct, China is applying the same playbook in the Solomon Islands as in Sri Lanka. First the political payoffs, then the debt trap, then the naval base.

Australia’s government owned ABC TV has screened a Four Corners program here and below dated August 1, 2022. 

The article below is based on the Four Corners episode.

ARTICLE

Angus Grigg, Stephanie March and Amy Donaldson have provided this ABC article, of August 1, 2022, with excerpts below:

"Australia urged to intervene as China tries to buy a strategic Solomon Islands port"

A Chinese state-owned company is negotiating to buy a deep-water port and World War II airstrip in Solomon Islands, as new documents detail how money from Beijing has helped keep the Pacific nation's controversial leader in power.

As a battle for influence plays out in the region, an investigation by Four Corners has found China is aggressively pursuing economic opportunities across the Solomons to boost Beijing's strategic interests.

One asset being targeted by China is a hardwood forestry plantation on the island of Kolombangara [see maps above] which features a protected harbour, deep-water port and an airstrip.

A delegation from the state-owned China Forestry Group Corporation visited the island in 2019 and, according to those present, showed little interest in the trees. 

Instead, one member of the group pointedly asked: "How long is the wharf and how deep is the water?"

Since COVID-19 border restrictions lifted last month, talks have resumed.

Silas Tausinga, a Solomon Islands MP whose electorate sits next to Kolombangara, believes China's ambition to house military assets in his country remains strong, despite months of high-level political and media attention.

"Absolutely, Australia should be worried about it," he told Four Corners.

This push is only possible because the Solomons severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of Beijing in 2019.

Since then, China has mobilised funds to support the country's combative Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare.

Chinese [Bribes] slush fund

Documents obtained by Four Corners show a Chinese slush fund was activated twice last year and dispersed nearly $3 million directly to members of parliament loyal to the Prime Minister.

One letter signed by Mr Sogavare said the Chinese embassy in Honiara "consented" to provide "additional support" for his government in August last year.

That was in the lead-up to a vote of no confidence, which could have toppled the Prime Minister and undermined Beijing's ambitions in the tiny Pacific nation.

Mr Sogavare described the money as a "stimulus package" to revitalise the economy, although it was only given to MPs loyal to him. Opposition members received nothing.

[The Australian Government, with aid and investments, is trying to counter the Chinese debt trap takeover, but it cannot use bribes like China does.]

….All MPs loyal to the Prime Minister received nearly $80,000 each…those MPs have no obligation to show how the money was spent.

Asked if the Chinese money allowed Mr Sogavare to retain his job, Mr Tausinga said: "Well, he's stayed in power, hasn't he?"

Beijing's desire for a military presence in the Solomons was revealed in a recently leaked letter from 2020, in which a Chinese defence contractor sought to lease land in Isabel Province to develop "naval and infrastructure projects" for the "People's Liberation Army Navy".

'Strategic threats' to Australia

Clive Moore, a Pacific expert from the University of Queensland, said in the longer term China could use its economic outposts in the Solomons for military purposes.

….The forestry plantation on Kolombangara offers both economic and strategic opportunities.

If a Chinese entity took over the plantation it would control two-thirds of [Kolombangara] island, including 14,000 hectares of hardwood forest, 24,000 hectares of protected forest, the port, a marine base, the airstrip and large areas of flat land. 

…Kolombangara has "the best natural deep-water port in the Solomons that could be used for a large vessel immediately"...."

THE WHOLE ABC REPORT IS HERE.