Solomon Islands PM signs security agreement with China, breaking friendship with Australia

Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare has now signed a security pact with the PRC, one in whose terms allow the totalitarian state to deploy its armed forces to the island at his personal request.

The embattled Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, just within the past year, faced riots against his pro-Chinese policies that represented such a large threat to his rule that he requested and received support from the Australian military to restore order. This took place under the security pact between those two.

Sogavare himself has admitted that the riots were triggered by his unilateral choice to change the Solomon Islands diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

That the Solomon Islands would then sign another overlapping security agreement, especially with the PRC, a state whose influence over the Solomon Islands led to riots so large last year that the president lost control of the capital city, is to many a shocking turn, and a sign that he may be beholden to China and possess some hidden ties.

A similar security arrangement existed between Kazakhstan and Russia, which was put to the test last year when mass protests against the dictatorial rule of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev threatened his rule.

Unlike the Australian response last year in the Solomon Islands which was completely bloodless, the Russian intervention led to the deaths of more than two hundred civilians, and the arrest of more than ten thousand, where many were tortured according to the BBC.

Now with the threat that of a new Chinese military intervention, with all of the potential for unbridled violence, might take place if there are further protests against the Sogavare regime, there will almost certainly be stifling of dissent.

Sogavare has dismissed international criticism of the agreement as patronizing, despite his own inability to maintain control of his own capital without the assistance of foreign troops.

Sogavare is not directly elected, he is chosen rather by the legislature, causing many to see him as an illegitimate ruler acting in the self interest of himself and his ethnic group rather than the Solomon Islands as a whole.