Fix poverty first to counter China, Solomon Islanders tell West | Al Jazeera

The United States and Australia are building new embassies and offering tens of millions of dollars in cash to counter Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands following the signing of a new security pact between Honiara and Beijing that Western officials say opens the door to a Chinese military base in the South Pacific.

But the strategy will not bear fruit until the West addresses fundamental problems in health, education and unemployment that have corroded democratic institutions and allowed China to gain a strong foothold in the tiny South Pacific nation of 700,000 that has one of the lowest Human Development Index scores in the world, according to opposition politicians and community leaders in the archipelago who spoke to Al Jazeera.

“To throw money at the country is not what Solomon Islanders need and actually plays into the hands of Prime Minister Sogavare and his pro-China group who will use it for political gain,” Peter Kenilorea,  the country’s deputy opposition leader, told Al Jazeera. “They will say this is the reason we signed the pact with China, now we are getting all this money and attention.”

Celsus Irokwato Talifilu, a political adviser for the Premier of Malaita, Solomon Island’s most densely populated province, expressed similar sentiments.......https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4/22/fix-poverty-first-to-counter-china-solomon-islanders-tell-west