Three days of riots, a curfew extended indefinitely in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, Friday, November 26, and the Australian army called in to restore order.

Thousands of demonstrators have been calling since Wednesday for the resignation of Manasseh Sogavare, the Prime Minister.

They even tried to break into his personal residence on Friday after trying to storm the parliament building two days earlier. 

The Chinese question "made the situation explosive"

And the intervention of the police, who carried out several warning shots in recent days, did not calm the spirits. The violent outbursts of the demonstrators continued and several stores were set on fire. Not just anywhere: Most of the buildings attacked are in Honiara's Chinatown.

It is not a coincidence. Indeed, the shadow of China and the struggle for influence that Beijing waged over the other Western powers in the Pacific weighed heavily on this protest movement. A significant part of the demonstrators come from the island of Malaita, the most populous province in the country and where a majority of the inhabitants, including the local government, have not forgiven Manasseh Sogavare for making a diplomatic turn to 180 degrees in 2019 to move closer to Beijing to the detriment of Taiwan.

So certainly, "the geopolitical arm wrestling in the region is not strictly speaking at the origin of these riots", analyzes Mihai Sora, a former Australian diplomat who was stationed in the Solomon Islands, interviewed by New York Times. The movement is also explained by a deep economic and social malaise of the inhabitants of Malaita, who blame the government for "an unfair distribution of the country's natural resources which have made Malaita the least developed region of the archipelago," recalls The Diplomat , a site specializing in news from the Asian area.

Nevertheless, "the controversies surrounding the Chinese influence have weakened social cohesion in the archipelago, making the situation all the more explosive", adds Mihai Sora.

In this sense, the Solomon Islands illustrate very concretely how the ever-growing geopolitical tensions between the United States and its allies on the one hand, and China on the other can destabilize entire territories.

Hence the international media interest aroused by a social movement in a territory which has, in total, only 668,000 inhabitants.

From pro-Taiwan to pro-Beijing

Until recently, the Solomon Islands occupied a special place on the diplomatic map: the archipelago was one of 16 states to recognize Taiwan as an independent country. A decision taken in 1983, which made the Solomon Islands one of the main diplomatic thorns in Chinese side in Oceania.

Chinese irritation has only increased as Beijing has "assumed its status as a great power on the international scene," notes The Diplomat.

The ever more assertive desire of Xi Jinping, who came to power in China in 2012, to extend the Chinese sphere of influence in the world through the famous New Silk Roads (Chinese investment program) made the diplomatic challenge posed. by the Solomon Islands in Beijing's natural backyard - the Pacific - all the more intolerable.

>> To read also on France 24: China at the crossroads of the "silk roads"

And in 2019, everything changes with the fourth term of Manasseh Sogavare. The outgoing Prime Minister had campaigned by promising to reverse the game of alliances in favor of Beijing. In September 2019, the new government took action and no longer recognized Taiwan as an independent country. The Solomon Islands adhere, in the wake of the New Silk Roads and the principle of the "One China Policy" ("one China policy", which considers Taiwan as part of Chinese territory).

Manasseh Sogavare justified this diplomatic about-face by pursuing the economic interests of the archipelago. "In 36 years, Taiwan has provided only 460 million dollars in aid to the Solomon Islands while in 2017 alone, the archipelago exported 554.8 million dollars of products to China," said Denghua. Zhang, a specialist on Chinese Pacific policy at Australian National University in Canberra, in a 2019 opinion piece on The Diplomat.

An economic justification that was not enough for Washington and its allies.

"US senators protested against this diplomatic realignment, Taiwan lamented the decision, and other countries in the region followed the example of the Solomon Islands such as the Kiribati archipelago which, two weeks later, also stopped recognize Taiwan, ”notes The Guardian.

It is not only on the international scene that this decision to sacrifice Taiwan on the altar of good economic relations with Beijing has gone badly.

On the island of Malaita, the local government decided to dissociate itself from this choice, even threatening to hold a referendum to obtain independence because of this diplomatic realignment. 

An island to "rent"?

Daniel Suidani, Prime Minister of Malaita, claimed that China had paid bribes to Manasseh Sogavere and his allies to gain their support.

He had assured to have himself been approached by Chinese for the same purpose.

This loyalty to Taiwan is not surprising.

Malaita is indeed home to the largest Taiwanese community in the archipelago and was the island best endowed with financial aid from this territory claimed by Beijing, recalls The Guardian.

Malaita is also full of certain natural resources highly coveted by China, starting with timber.

Local officials "feared that the government would sell off these resources to improve relations with Beijing," notes the New York Times.

This apprehension reinforced by the signing at the end of September 2019 of a "cooperation agreement" which would have allowed a Chinese company to "rent" the entire island of Tulagi for 75 years. The revelations about the initially kept secret deal drew fierce criticism, both from residents of Tulagi, Washington and authorities in Malaita, forcing the government to back down and declare the deal illegal.

Since then, the island of Malaita has not missed an opportunity to stir the Taiwanese knife in the government's wound in Honiara.

Thus, during the pandemic, Daniel Sudani very officially thanked the State of Taiwan for providing him with medical equipment to fight against Covid-19.

And the riots that have broken out are further proof of this.

In the end, one wonders if it is the Solomon Islands which are trapped in the geopolitical struggle between the great powers or if it is China and Taiwan which are "pawns in the political battle" between the Malaita region in Solomon Islands government for years. 

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR