On Saturday China slammed a recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which claimed that China is attempting to "spread false narratives and suppress information on a range of topics" in the Solomon Islands. Chinese authorities said such move is an ineffective attempt to stir trouble.
There is no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party is all over Solomon Islands influencing its decision making, and its domestic policies. This is a violation of all diplomatic decorum where domestic issues are left to the governing bodies, not foreign entities. In the months after booting China out of the country, China wanted to ensure no one in the country had any connection to Taiwan. No only did the government of Sogavare pushed hard against any provinces that still remained loyal to Taiwan, it was doing so at the best of Beijing. Sogavare had attacked the Malaita Province, and attempted to unseat the pro-Taiwanese premier Suidani. The Suidani government was shaken and infiltrated, but remained intact. Most elected Malaitans remained loyal to Suidani and wanted their premier to do what he was doing because they supported it. This infuriated no only China but the SIG.
Additionally, the Chinese government affected Sogavare government in profound ways. They funded Sogavare's fight against a NCM, a violation of foreign interference in domestic politics of the country. He went on to win his fight against Matthew Wale. Later on, evidence of Chinese money in play in the country's domestic came to light that the Chinese government had paid all MPs who backed Sogavare to the tunes of hundreds of thousands each, and millions of dollars in total.
Furthermore, China was behind Sogavare's recent push to extend his term to another year there causing a constitutional crisis, which he got away with it. In a country that lacked government watchdogs, such move was seen as blatantly unconstitutional, but Sogavare got away with it. But what is China saying?
China has always upheld the principles of mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, openness and inclusiveness. Read more
These Chinese mouthpieces should know that "mutual respects" and "equal treatment" have no place in the domestic affairs of the country. But we know from China's dealings with foreign government, and that is they are in to benefit from it directly, and they achieved that by weakening the government of the host nation by overwhelming it with money they can't pay back, or burden it with so much that debt that the host country cannot afford to letdown. In other words, the host country is beholden to the Chinese government - they must do what the Chinese said. This "mutual benefit" is a code word for - we give you tons of money, you do what we want. This simply validated what the Australians are whining about.
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