China watch.

2 SEPTEMBER 2022

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Chinese Communist Party influenced Solomon Islands Government has extended its ban on warship visits from the US Navy and US Coast Guard to the British Royal Navy and now the Royal Australian Navy.

The Solomon Islands Government led by the ferociously Chinese influenced Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare has announced that the recent ban on US and United Kingdom ships and warship into Solomon Island ports has been extended to include the Royal Australian Navy and other Australian government agency vessels

Prime Minister Sogavare, who only retains office due to an emergency Australian security intervention in November last year after civil anger at his rule erupted into widespread rioting in the capital Honiara has openly turned to the Chinese Communist Regime to maintain his hold on power.

The ban on port visits by foreign warships became apparent when scheduled port visits to the Solomon Islands by the US Coast Guard cutter USCG Oliver Henry and the UK's forward deployed Offshore Patrol Vessels were denied entry to Solomon ports where the warships were scheduled to resupply under long standing arrangements.

The ban was extended to Royal Australian Navy vessels by default when the Solomon Islands declared that it needed to review its shipping procedures stating, "We have requested our partners to give us time to review and put in place our new processes before sending further requests for military vessels to enter."

Sogavare's decision to evict Australian, US Coast Guard and Royal Navy patrol vessels is entirely sinister as the patrol boats are employed to patrol and protect Solomon Islands fisheries, a key national asset and primary protein source for the nation's population, from illegal international fishing fleets.

The ban on western warships is clearly part of Sogavare's plan to retain power with Chinese Communist Party regime support which has already secured basing and wharf rights in the Solomon Islands and has openly supported Sogavare's plans to cancel scheduled election next year.

China already demonstrated its control of the Solomon Islands government, making cash payments directly to serving MPs on the eve of a key 'no confidence' vote in the parliament which secured Sogavare despite the widespread loss of support amongst the population.

Australia is in a difficult position, not only strategically with a Chinese controlled neighbour now being openly hostile and implementing directly anti Australian policies but we maintain a paramilitary police and defence contingent in the country since the Sogavare requested intervention in November 2021.

Australia led and the funded Solomon Islands Assistance Force (SIAF) staffed by Australian Federal Police, Australian Defence Force, New Zealand Police, New Zealand Defence Force, Papua New Guinea Police and Republic of Fiji Police personnel which was established in the wake of the Australian security intervention in the Solomon Islands in November 2021 when massive street demonstrations against Chinese Communist Party regime influence over the Solomon Island's government of Manesseh Sogavare devolved into widespread rioting that seriously damaged the capital Honiara and left a number of people dead.

The pro Chinese Sogavare government came close to collapsing and Prime Minister Sogavare himself was in danger and was only rescued by the intervention of the Australian Defence Force under Operation Lilia.


Pro China Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare, who is accused of accepting Chinese bribes, seen here lecturing RSIPF officers outside Honiara on July 5, is rapidly turning the Solomon Islands into a Chinese vassal state which will likely become a forward Chinese military staging area. Pic RSIPF

Sogavare rewarded Australia and the Pacific Islands Forum for his rescue and follow on stabilisation of the Solomon Islands, by signing up to a binding security treaty with the Chinese Communist Party regime and authorising the deployment of an armed Chinese combat team (known as the 'plain clothes security team') with an arsenal of weapons, including General Support Machine Guns and sniper rifles, to the Peoples Republic of China embassy in Honiara alongside a paramilitary Chinese Police Liaison Team which is openly attempting to gain influence over the Royal Solomon Island Police Force.

The new Chinese security agreement allows the Peoples Liberation Army and other Chinese Communist Party armed security agencies access to the Solomon Islands without invitation and opens the potential for the very undeveloped nation to be employed for Chinese basing. Chinese companies have moved rapidly in the interim to commence building airfields and wharf facilities on regional Solomon Island islands that have very little economic justification and are seen as almost unconcealed Chinese military facilities.

Both the Chinese Embassy 'plain clothes security team' and the China Police Liaison Team were authorised to enter the Solomon Islands by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare who leads the Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement grouping in the wake of the November violent uprising against his government after it announced increased ties to the communist regime of the Peoples Republic of China.

The unrest devolved into serious rioting targeting the Chinese community in Honiara, resulting in the destruction of a large percentage of the capital's China Town, which only ended after the intervention of the Australian Federal Police led multi agency security intervention force which included an Australian Defence Force combat and combat support element under Operation Lilia.

The rapidly expanding Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands is being driven by the anti Australian Prime Minister Sogavare and his senior advisor Robson Djokovic who claim that the Solomon Islands is 'diversifying' its international security support away from the Australian and New Zealand led Pacific Islands Forum based security interventions of the past.

While Sogavare initially pretended nothing has changed beyond the Solomons having a small amount of Chinese security support, in reality Sogavare is now rapidly moving to solidify his power with Chinese money and arms and is actively eliminating the influence of Australia, New Zealand and to a lessor extent the Pacific Islands Forum which restored security and regenerated the Solomon Islands democracy after a brutal civil war that erupted in the early 2000s before being halted by the Australian Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands which concluded in 2017.

Since initiating the Chinese take over, Sogavare has implemented a ban on western media reporting to conceal the rapid Chinese Communist take over of the until recently pro Taiwan pro Pacific Islands Forum democracy.

Sogavare has been accused by the Solomon Islands parliamentary opposition and press of maintaining his rule by employing bribes to key political and institutional figures paid from Chinese financed slush funds.

Sogavare is also trying to extend his rule by the delay (and possible cancellation) of next year's scheduled national elections, preparing to put an act before parliament to authorise his continued rule, claiming that the elections would interfere with a regional event the Solomon Islands is hosting.

In a bizarre twist, Chinese shipments of plastic simulated weapons smuggled clandestinely into the Solomon Islands on a timber freighter rather than through official channels in Honiara were intercepted by Solomon Islands customs and border control officials.

The plastic 'training aids', simulated Chinese 5.8x42mm QBZ-95 assault rifles and 5.8x21mm QSZ-193 pistols, which were originally denied to exist by Solomons' authorities have now turned up at Rove Police Headquarters and were employed by the China Police Liaison Team during the recent Public Order Management course.

The operational stand up of the Chinese Embassy's armed 'plain clothes security team' coincides with the Solomon Islands government's signing of a comprehensive security agreement with the Peoples Republic of China that authorises Chinese warship operations from the nation and Chinese military and security police intervention to protect Chinese citizens and facilities.

The United States of America, Australia and New Zealand have officially expressed their concerns to the Solomon Islands government over the agreement to allow Chinese military access to Solomon Islands territory and broader issues of Chinese government influence without explicitly pointing out the claims of Chinese corruption of Solomon Islands parliamentary processes.

Sogavare's embrace of the Xi regime in Beijing however carries significant risk for the regional strong man, with a population that is very suspicious of the Chinese and resentful of Chinese control of much of the nation's economic activity and disproportionate recipients of the wealth generated in the almost 1000 island micro state.

The Solomon Islands is geographically extremely important to Australia and New Zealand, a reality demonstrated during the Second World War when the then British protectorate was seized by the Japanese Imperial Navy before being recaptured by primarily US military forces in some of the heaviest fighting of the Second World War.

Australia and New Zealand, with the support of the United States of America and regional states, are totally opposed to the establishment of any Chinese military infrastructure in the Solomon Islands.

Australia withdrew from the Solomon Islands in 2017 after completing a 15 year involvement under the RAMSI focused mission to restore peace after the Solomon Islands civil war.

A second round of Australian deployments under the current AFP led Solomon Island Assistance Force are scheduled to stay in the Solomon Islands until 2023 under an agreement negotiated earlier this year.

Australia already finances the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force which has limited weapons at its disposal including 9x19mm Glock handguns and 5.56x45mm Daniels Defense M-4 carbines for employment by the RSIPF's Police Response Team (PRT) and Close Personal Protection (CPP) supplied by the Australian Federal Police under the RSIPF Rearmament Phases I and II.

Australia, New Zealand and their allies are not inclined to significantly increase the gifting of weapons to the RSIPF as the force's weapon stocks made up a significant majority of the weapons systems employed in the 1998-2003 communal violence and follow on civil war.