The Solomon Islands are most likely the Indo-Pacific region’s most strategic route. The unique position of this land mass provides various world powers with numerous options. Changing global dynamics have prompted global powers to increase engagement with the Solomon Islands, and it appears that China is ahead of the pack. The islands give China something it didn’t have before: a stronger grip on the Pacific and an ideal location to expand its space operations. This alone should be cause for concern in the United States and Australia.
Beijing Eyes the Solomon Islands
To counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, the US has rallied regional powers such as India, Japan, and Australia. To keep the Chinese at bay, organisations like QUAD and high-profile defence deals like AUKUS are formed. However, the Chinese are not backing down. They have made concerted efforts to maintain their hold on the area. Beijing has increased its focus on ASEAN countries and has successfully established a presence in several East African states.
China is now looking to the Solomon Islands. Actually, it has had a significant influence over the islands since 2020. With China’s presence in the Solomon Islands, private Chinese enterprises have attempted to acquire strategic assets for the military. ‘China Sam Enterprise Group,’ a Chinese defence ministry-affiliated company, previously attempted to take control of Tulagi Islet for a potential construction project. The proposal, however, did not go through after the attorney general backed out of the deal.
China Sam’s vice president, Xu Changyu, returned with a proposal to collaborate with AVIC International Project Engineering, a subsidiary of a Chinese state aerospace and defence group. Xu had a new project in mind. Its goal was to investigate ‘opportunities to develop naval and infrastructure’.
The Solomon Islands’ geopolitical significance
Following the failure of the first agreement, China and the Solomon Islands negotiated a security pact, which was signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Jeremiah Manele, the Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of the Solomon Islands.
According to a leaked version of the agreement, ‘China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of the Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistics replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in the Solomon Islands, and the relevant forces can be used to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in the Solomon Islands’. The importance of the islands, on the other hand, is underappreciated.
Chinese presence on the islands would pose a direct threat to US’ Guam doctrine. Guam sits 3,200 km north of the Solomon Islands and is considered the center of the United States’ power projection in the Pacific. Guam is part of the US’ Second Island Chain defense strategy, which emerged as the primary containment approach toward China since the end of the Cold War.
Following the signing of the agreement, American intentions to replace China on the islands appear to be a far-fetched fantasy. According to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, all ‘foreign navy vessels’ will be temporarily barred from docking on the island. The PM appears to have sold the islands to Beijing. It won’t be long before China sends its army and warships there. This poses a significant security risk to the United States’ ally, Australia, which is only 2000 kilometres south-west of the Solomon Islands.
Surprisingly, the island’s importance does not stop there. The landmass is quite close to the equator. A spacecraft launched from a location near the equator can take full advantage of the Earth’s significant rotational speed. The Chinese have already expressed an interest in developing infrastructure on the island through AVIC International Project Engineering, a subsidiary of a Chinese-state aerospace and defence group.
It is common knowledge that China lacks a suitable geographical location to advance its space programme. As a result, it is reportedly falling behind India and the United States in space exploration. As a result, it would not be unreasonable to believe that China could use the islands to advance its space programme and launch satellites.
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