Is China responsible for the unrest in the Solomon Islands?

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – The Solomon Islands’ decision to transfer its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing has been blamed for arson and looting in the nation’s capital Honiara, where protesters are calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

Australian police, troops and diplomats are helping local police restore peace and order while trying to stay clear of domestic political conflict.

Here are some of the reasons for the turmoil:

ETHNIC TENSIONS OPEN OLD INJURIES

The Solomon Islands are famous as the battleground of World War II, the crucial Battle of Guadalcanal, named after the largest island in the country where the restless capital Honiara is located.

It was then known as the protectorate of the British Solomon Islands and became the Solomon Islands before independence in 1978. The South Pacific nation of 700,000 people – mainly Melanesian but also Polynesian, Micronesian, Chinese and European – is, like neighboring Australia and New Zealand, a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

A migration of settlers from Malaita, the country’s second largest island and most populous province, to the economic opportunities of Guadalcanal and Honiara fueled ethnic tensions and ultimately unrest.

In the late 1990s, the indigenous islanders of Guadalcanal, known as Guales, launched a campaign of violence and intimidation to drive Malaitans off the island. The Malaita Eagle Force militia was formed to protect them in a conflict that led the government to declare a four-month state of emergency in 1999.

Australia and New Zealand have rejected the government’s request for assistance. With the ethnically divided police force, law and order in Guadalcanal has collapsed.

In 2000, the Malaita Eagle Force kidnapped Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu, a Malaitan, because they felt he was not doing enough for the Malaitan cause.

Ulufa’alu resigned in exchange for his freedom, and current Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare began the first of his four terms as leader of the unstable nation.

WHAT IS CHINA’S ROLE IN THE CURRENT DISORDERS?

China has provided another cause of division for the community, with the government backing Beijing and the Malaysian rulers backing Taiwan.

The autonomous island of Taiwan split from mainland China after a civil war in 1949, but Beijing claims it as part of its territory and has persuaded all but 15 countries, mostly small and poor in Africa and d Latin America, to change recognition. to the mainland.

But experts say the unrest in Solomon Islands is driven by the same underlying causes that have plagued the social fabric for decades: inter-island and ethnic tensions, a perceived lack of resource sharing between Guadalcanal and Malaita, widespread poverty and high youth unemployment. .

“Geopolitical tensions have been the spark but not the main driver,” said Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific Islands program at the Lowy Institute’s international policy think tank.

“‘I am sure there is a certain degree of affection for Taiwan in Malaita, but it is also another way for Malaitans to express their frustration with the national government,” he added.

Pryke said it was too early to judge whether the Solomons would benefit financially from their change in diplomatic relations with Beijing in 2019.

While Beijing’s financial incentives to sever ties with Taiwan have yet to bear fruit, the Solomons have closed their borders throughout the pandemic, which has limited Chinese engagement.

Resentment against Chinese businessmen is long-standing in the Solomon Islands and resulted in the burning of much of Honiara’s Chinatown in 2006, and again this week.

“Chinese communities are vulnerable in Solomon Islands because they lack the traditional support base,” said Pryke. “They don’t have the tribal families that would give them an added degree of cultural isolation from this kind of unrest.”

HOW IS AUSTRALIA INVOLVED?

Australia and the Solomons signed their first bilateral security treaty in 2017. It provides a legal basis for the rapid deployment of Australian police, troops and associated civilians in the event of a major security issue.

Australian police were in the air aboard a military transport plane hours after Sogavare invoked the treaty on Thursday.

Australia had led a Pacific Island police and troop force as part of the Solomon Islands Regional Assurance Mission, or RAMSI, from 2003 to 2017. It included 2,300 police and soldiers from 17 countries, invited by the government of the Solomons. The deployment successfully ended the conflict which left 200 people dead.

In the five years of ethical and civil unrest before the arrival of RAMSI, the Solomons were on the verge of becoming a failed state.

The bilateral treaty recognizes that the underlying causes of the unrest persist and pose development challenges.

“Solomon Islands will need continued support to maintain the gains made under RAMSI and to help establish long-term stability and sustainable growth,” the Australian government said in 2017.

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