Chinese company leases island in the Solomons

Beijing has extended its influence and control over the approaches to Australia by leasing a Pacific island from the impoverished Solomon Islands. The deal to rent the island of Tulagi to a conglomerate closely linked to the Chinese government has raised concerns that Beijing will establish a military foothold about 1,000 miles from Australia’s northeast coast.

Details of the deal have emerged just days after the Solomons switched diplomatic allegiance to Beijing from Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. Under a “strategic co-operation agreement” China’s Sam Enterprise Group will develop the island and those near by as a special economic zone. The contract, seen by The Times, gives Sam, which described itself as a partner of the state-owned China National Chemical Corporation, exclusive development rights over Tulagi and its immediate islets.

The move has come as a surprise to many of the 1,000 residents on the three and a half mile long island, which lies ten miles to the north of the Solomons’ capital, Honiara on the neighbouring island of Guadalcanal.

Guadalcanal was the site of one of the bloodiest Pacific battles of the Second World War as allied forces tried to repulse a Japanese advance towards Australia and New Zealand. Tulagi Island has long been of strategic and military significance and was Britain’s headquarters when the Solomons were declared a British protectorate in 1893. Japanese forces invaded the Solomon Islands in May 1942 in a move intended to disrupt crucial supply lines between the US and Australia and New Zealand. Imperial Japan then built naval refuelling, communications, and seaplane reconnaissance bases on the islands.

“I think Australia and other western parties will be concerned anytime they hear of a Chinese entity sniffing around a long-term lease of a potentially strategic asset in the Pacific,” Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific islands programme at Sydney’s Lowy Institute, said. “The great fear is that over time China will leverage one of these agreements to gradually transform it into some kind of military facility,” he told The Times.

Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China was seeking control over all approaches to the Asian mainland, potentially disrupting the ability of the US to support its allies in Asia-Pacific. “Our government would be worried by developments in the Solomon Islands. That’s not to say they can’t be reversed but they’re running counter to Australia’s interests,” he told the Australian Financial Review.

As alarm mounted over the deal, the Solomons’ official who signed it, Stanley Manetiva, the central province premier, appeared to cast doubt on his commitment to it. He told Radio New Zealand the agreement was not legally binding and the Chinese company would have to comply with local laws and respect landowner rights on Tulagi. “To be honest here, leasing Tulagi will not be possible,” he said.

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