Opinion | The Pacific Competition rolls on
By Tom Fowdy
Today, following a visit by its Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, to Beijing, China and the Solomon Islands officially upgraded their relationship to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" and also signed a much-disdained policing and security pact between the two countries. China and the islands had only opened diplomatic relations in 2019, whereby the country switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing. This has long attracted the ire of the United States and its allies, who have responded to growing cooperation between the two by lodging a series of threats, including making the exaggerated premise Beijing was seeking to establish a military base in the country.
One should expect this latest news to be met with a similar round of media vitriol. The United States, and by extension, Australia, see the Pacific as their own rightful hegemonic domain and have sought to block what they deem as the expansion of China's influence into it. Although Beijing's cooperation with the small island nations of this region has never in fact taken a military character, it is primarily seen through this lens in Washington, who from the legacy of the Pacific Theatre of World War II sees its dominance over the island chains as critical to winning any war in Asia.
Hence, both before and after the war, the US has outright annexed or quasi-vassalized many of its territories, including Micronesia, American Samoa, Guam, the Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands, having used the previously annexed islands of Hawaii as a stepping stone. This has then been bolstered by the use of its primary Pacific ally, Australia, to transform the region into a giant military platform capable of projecting power onto the Asian mainland in conjunction with Japan and the Philippines. Although this was initially aimed at the eastern flank of the Soviet Union, it is now aimed at China, whereby the first and second island chains are seen as a critical area of "strategic competition" between the two powers.
In doing so, the United States has begun aggressively increasing its overtures to the region, and of course "marshaling" regional countries into making new defence-related cooperation agreements, while of course attempting to belligerently stop China from doing the same thing. Recently, the US concluded a "Defence Cooperation Agreement" with Papua New Guinea which significantly increases its access to bases in the country. The agreement mirrors those it has been pushing with other countries, such as the Philippines. It is of course hypocritical on the US's behalf to do this, not least the outrage displayed over China's purported agreements with the Solomon Islands displayed a one-sided sense of entitlement, and many threats were made to even sanction the small island country if it did take on a military nature.
The US claims of course that it is a force for stability, but it is anything but. It is attempting to maintain its dominance over the region and prepare it for war. China's strategic ambitions, however, are less overt. China has strived to increase peaceful and economic cooperation with the respective nations of Polynesia and Micronesia, which of course has led to the US try and respond in kind, however superficially that may be. However, the reality is that these countries, excluding those who are still legal vassals of the United States, such as the Marshall Islands, depend on Chinese investment and outbound trade in order to facilitate their own economic development, which their former colonial masters in the west have been negligent of.
Consider, if you are the Solomon Islands, a country with a population of just 707,851, less than even the smaller Chinese cities, why would you turn down the opportunity to enter into an economic relationship with a country of 1.4 billion people? The rewards of the Chinese market, as well as infrastructure investment, are truly astronomical. From a national interest perspective, this is common sense and does not equate to ideological alignment or an alliance of sorts. The Solomon Islands is a small country that wants to better itself, and because it has been under undisputed Western dominance for so long, it has had very little leverage or hand to exert itself and get a better deal. Now it does. The US and Australia have to take their relationship seriously.
That doesn't mean any side wins or loses, but what it does mean is that the benefits of multipolarity have come to the Pacific, and providing militarisation and conflict are avoided, there is a lot more to gain from these very small and peaceful countries.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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Opinion | If the US wants economic engagement with China, it has to prove it
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