Honiara: For many Solomon Islanders, the equation is simple. China offers them something they have not had for too long: aspiration.
“It’s the first time the local people see this kind of event happening here,” said market worker Sarisha Aiti outside Honiara’s new national stadium last week, where everything from the toilets to shipping containers to the main grandstand had been emblazoned with “China Aid” for the Pacific Games.
Solomon Islanders attend the Pacific Games in Honiara.Credit: Eryk Bagshaw
The stadium is next to Solomon Islands National University, where China has also built the dormitories, just a few kilometres away from the road to the airport built by a Chinese-state-owned company, and around the corner from the country’s first dedicated cardiac unit – all funded by Beijing.
“I’m so happy because other Pacific countries don’t have this type of stadium we now have,” said Lemuel Kalei as he sold bandanas in the middle of the daily bedlam of potholes, traffic and people that is Honiara’s high street.
He’s right. Not even Fiji, a Pacific powerhouse with an economy more than three times that of Solomon Islands, has flashy facilities like this.
Kalei, like some locals in Solomon Islands, isn’t thinking about geopolitics, the diplomatic implications of Chinese investment or whether the facilities will be sustainable after the end of the Pacific Games.
Lemue Kalei is grateful for Chinese investment in Solomon Islands. Credit: Jack Donohoe
“Solomon Islands is a third-world country,” he said. “We are living in poverty. China will give more valuable things.”
It’s a template China is exporting to other Pacific nations. Unbridled by elections or parliamentary scrutiny at home, the Chinese government is free to splash its chequebook in countries that it views as strategically important.
Beijing is winning hearts and minds, Australia needs to get real in the Pacific
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04.12.2023
Honiara: For many Solomon Islanders, the equation is simple. China offers them something they have not had for too long: aspiration.
“It’s the first time the local people see this kind of event happening here,” said market worker Sarisha Aiti outside Honiara’s new national stadium last week, where everything from the toilets to shipping containers to the main grandstand had been emblazoned with “China Aid” for the Pacific Games.
Solomon........
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