Solomon Islands Likely to Switch Diplomatic Ties to China

The Solomon Islands, with elections today, will likely to reconsider its diplomatic ties with China. Prime minister Rick Hou said that they will review Solomon Island’s diplomatic relations with China if re-elected.

A former high commissioner now part of the election observer team James Batley said some politicians were pushing behind the scenes for the small Pacific nation to switch recognition to China after the election. Batley said there is a sense that this is an issue that the next government will at the very least have considered actively. “It's not the first time the issue has been raised in the Solomons. At the moment there is a sense that China is a rising power in the Pacific and certainly some educated Solomon Islanders are saying let’s consider this, let’s look at this, should we switch?”

Former Chinese diplomat and Australian National University academic Denghua Zhang explained that China’s largesse, aid and investment to its eight Pacific allies ‘appeals to Solomon Islands officials. Dr Zhang said it would be a mistake to underestimate the extent of Taiwan’s influence with the local political elite. Batley said the historically high amount ploughed into constituency development funds, which are directly allocated to elected officials for use in their electorates and are funded by Taipei, saw more MPs maintain their seats at the last election.

In the 2014 election, he said only 25 lost their seat and there was speculation that had to do with the large increase in the constituency development funds. “The issue of foreign investment was not an election issue. There’s a strong theme of economic nationalism running through a lot of the campaigning, it is talking about foreigners coming to the Solomon Islands and having an increasing role in the economy.”

Batley said the election result was uncertain because of the high number of independent candidates.