In sign of weakness, pro-China Solomons PM avoids meeting US Congress members

Honiara, SOLOMAN ISLANDS — No more pretending. Now we know. The Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is in the SoWhatAreYaGonnaDoAboutIt? phase.

Last week, PM Sogavare snubbed a U.S. Congressional Delegation (CODEL) led by Congressman Dr. Neal Dunn and Congresswoman Aumua Amata that was visiting the country (press release from the Congresswoman's office is printed in Thursday's edition). Not a single government minister met the two Members of Congress during their time in the capital, Honiara. That is, to say the least, very unusual.

The CODEL did what a good CODEL is supposed to do. Find out what conditions are like on the ground. The snub was part of that—and in its way, very helpful. If they were worth snubbing, it means at some level Sogavare and the CCP are scared of them, and they are doing something right. One person’s snubbing is another’s avoiding.

While the snub will please Sogavare’s masters in Beijing, it will not go down well in the Pacific family, especially as one of the snubees, Amata Radewagen, is one of their own. Which is another thing the CODEL saw—there is no longer any “winning over” of people like Sogavare.

Above all, the CODEL learned what Solomon Islanders know. As Dr Dunn said after the trip, “Like a viper slithering around its prey, the CCP is coiling around Solomon Islands in hopes of tightening their grip on the Indo-Pacific region.”

Read the history behind this and what it means for politics in the Pacific by linking here to The Guardian.