Tag Archives: Solomon

World

Solomon Islands to ban U.S. navy ships from ports – U.S. embassy

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Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare remotely addresses the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly by pre-recorded video in New York City, U.S., September 25, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/Pool

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SYDNEY, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The Solomon Islands government has told the United States it will place a moratorium on navy vessels entering its ports, the United States embassy in Canberra said on Tuesday.

The notice follows an incident last Tuesday when a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Oliver Henry, was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because the government did not respond to a request for it to refuel and provision.

The Solomon Islands has had a tense relationship with the United States and its allies since striking a security pact with China earlier this year. read more

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“On Aug. 29, the United States received formal notification from the Government of Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures,” the embassy said in a statement.

A spokesman for Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare earlier denied the reports of a moratorium, and told Reuters that Sogavare would make a speech on Tuesday afternoon.

Sogavare would make a speech to welcome a U.S. navy hospital ship, Mercy, which arrived in Honiara on Monday for a two week mission, he said.

The embassy said Mercy had arrived before the moratorium.

“The U.S. Navy ship Mercy received diplomatic clearance prior to the moratorium being implemented. We will continue to closely monitor the situation,” the embassy said.

Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Oliver Henry was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara, the Solomons’ capital. read more

A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Monday said the “lack of diplomatic clearance for the Oliver Henry was regrettable”, and the United States was pleased the Mercy had received clearance.

The Mercy’s humanitarian mission, together with personnel from Australia and Japan, will include community health outreach, engineering projects, and discussions on disaster relief.

Separately, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was regrettable that “we’ve seen the Chinese try to bully and coerce nations throughout the Indo-Pacific to do their bidding and to serve what they believe their selfish national security interests are, rather than the broader interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

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Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Himani Sarkar

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

US Coast Guard cutter denied entry into Solomon Islands port sparking concerns of China’s growing influence

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A United States Coast Guard cutter conducting patrols on an international mission in the Pacific Ocean was denied entry to a port in the Solomon Islands raising concerns about China’s growing influence in the area.

The cutter Oliver Henry was taking part in Operation Island Chief monitoring fishing activities in the Pacific, which ended Friday, when it sought to make a scheduled stop at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to refuel and re-provision, the Coast Guard office in Honolulu said.

There was no response from the Solomon Islands’ government for diplomatic clearance for the vessel to stop there, however, so the Oliver Henry diverted to Papua New Guinea, the Coast Guard said.

Additionally, it was reported that a British vessel was also denied entry but the British Royal Navy has not commented directly on those reports.

COMMUNIST CHINA SURVIVOR ISSUES WARNING TO AMERICANS: SOCIALISM IS ONLY THE FIRST STAGE

United States Coast Guard crew members work on a Cutter at the Coast Guard Sector Miami base on January 26, 2022 in Miami, Florida. 
( (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images))

During Operation Island Chief, the U.S., Australia, Britain and New Zealand provided support through aerial and surface surveillance for Pacific island nations participating in the operation, including the Solomon Islands.

China has been assertively trying to expand its presence and influence in the Pacific, and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare alarmed some neighbors, the U.S. and others after he signed a new security pact with China.

US RESPONDS IN KIND FOR CHINA-BOUND FLIGHTS AFTER BEIJING SUSPENDS 26 FLIGHTS TO AMERICA

The pact has raised fears of a Chinese naval base being established within 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of Australia’s northeast coast. A Chinese military presence in the Solomon Islands would put it not only on the doorstep of Australia and New Zealand but also in close proximity to Guam, the U.S. territory that hosts major military bases.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission
(Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“China is gaining ground in its efforts to gain dominance in the Pacific,” Former United States Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary James Hutton tweeted in response to the news. 

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“China is now running the Solomon Islands,” Gordon G. Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China, posted on Twitter.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Beijing, Oct. 9, 2019.
(Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

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World

US ship unable to get Solomon Islands’ permission to dock, says Washington | Solomon Islands

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A United States coast guard vessel was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because its government did not respond to a request to refuel and provision, a US official said.

The Solomons government did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment. It has had a tense relationship with the US and its allies since striking a security pact with China in May.

The USCGC Oliver Henry was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara, the Solomons’ capital, a US coast guard press officer said in an emailed statement.

The vessel was diverted to Papua New Guinea instead, the official said.

The British navy declined to comment on social media reports that Solomon Islands port access was also not forthcoming for patrol vessel HMS Spey – also taking part in monitoring for illegal fishing in the economic exclusion zones of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

“Ships’ programmess are under constant review and it is routine practice for them to change,” a Royal Navy spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “For reasons of operational security we do not discuss details.”

The Solomons’ government and Beijing have ruled out a Chinese military base on the islands, although a leaked draft showed the security agreement would allow the Chinese navy to dock and replenish.

The fisheries agency for the Pacific Islands Forum, a block of 17 Pacific nations, has a maritime surveillance centre in Honiara, and holds annual surveillance operations for illegal fishing with assistance from Australia, the US, New Zealand and France.

The Oliver Henry had been scheduled for a routine logistics port call in Solomon Islands, said Kristin Kam, public affairs officer for the US coast guard in Hawaii.

“The government of the Solomon Islands did not respond to the US government’s request for diplomatic clearance for the vessel to refuel and provision in Honiara,” she said in a statement.

“The US Department of State is in contact with the government of the Solomon Islands and expect all future clearances will be provided to US ships.”

HMS Spey had Fiji navy officers on board as it worked alongside long-range maritime patrol aircraft from Australia and New Zealand and the US coast guard in the operation to gather information for the Pacific Islands Forum fisheries agency, the Royal Navy said in a statement on Thursday.

It carried out inspections of suspect vessels in ports as well as boardings at sea, it said.

The Royal Navy spokesman said it “looks forward to visiting the Solomon Islands at a later date”.

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World

Solomon Islands PM suggests Australia’s reaction to China security deal is hysterical and hypocritical | Asia Pacific

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The prime minister of Solomon Islands has accused the Australian government of hypocrisy over his country’s security deal with China, saying the Aukus pact was far from transparent but he “did not become theatrical and hysterical”.

Manasseh Sogavare said Solomon Islands and other countries in the region “should have been consulted to ensure that this Aukus treaty is transparent since it will affect the Pacific family by allowing nuclear submarines in Pacific waters”.

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, hit back on Friday afternoon, suggesting that Sogavare had changed his view based on “other influences” and that there was a “remarkable similarity between those statements and those of the Chinese government”.

China announced last week that it had signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands, although the final terms of that deal are not yet public.

Australia, the UK and the US announced in mid-September they would deepen trilateral security cooperation through Aukus and launched a project to find the best way for Australia to acquire at least eight nuclear-propelled submarines.

The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, used a speech on Thursday to criticise the secrecy surrounding the Solomons security agreement while insisting “no document signed and kept away from public view” would change Australia’s commitment to answering Pacific island countries’ needs.

In an at-times defensive address to parliament in Honiara on Friday, Sogavare said the “western media” had accused Solomon Islands and China of showing a lack of transparency about the agreement. But Sogavare said he had first “learned of the Aukus treaty in the media”.

“One would expect that as a member of the Pacific family, Solomon Islands and members of the Pacific should have been consulted to ensure that this Aukus treaty is transparent, since it will affect the Pacific family by allowing nuclear submarines in Pacific waters,” Sogavare said.

“Oh, but I realise … that Australia is a sovereign country, and that it can enter into any treaty that it wants to, transparently or not – which is exactly what they did with [the] Aukus treaty.”

Sogavare added: “When Australia signed up to Aukus we did not become theatrical and hysterical on the implications this would have for us. We respected Australia’s decision. And I’m glad to say that Australia, United States of Australia and Japan respected our sovereignty to enter into this security agreement with China as well, based on trust and mutual respect.”

Morrison said had spoken with Sogavare the day after the Aukus announcement in September 2021, as part of a round of calls with many leaders briefing them on what had been negotiated in a “highly secure” environment.

Morrison said Australia had moved quickly to reassure the Pacific about Australia’s ongoing commitment to meet its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

“I did have that conversation with the prime minister [Sogavare] the day following the announcement, and no issues were raised at that time in that discussion,” Morrison told reporters during an election campaign stop in Tasmania.

“But obviously, as time goes on and new relationships are entered into, there’s obviously been some clearly other influences in the perspective taken by the Solomon Islands prime minister. Now, I understand that.”

When a journalist asked whether Morrison was saying Sogavare was parroting China’s rhetoric, the Australian prime minister replied: “There’s a remarkable similarity between those statements and those of the Chinese government.”

China has been particularly critical of the Aukus agreement, seeing it as part of US efforts to contain it, and has emphasised nuclear non-proliferation risks.

A Chinese foreign ministry official, Wang Wenbin, told reporters on Wednesday that the US and Australia were guilty of “pure double standards”.

“The US shows no openness and transparency when it conducted nuclear tests and dumped nuclear wastes in the South Pacific region and when Aukus opened the Pandora’s box of nuclear proliferation in the Asia Pacific region,” Wang said.

Sogavare reiterated on Friday that Solomon Islands would not allow a Chinese military base in the country. He said he agreed with other leaders, including Morrison, that such a military base would not be in the interest of Solomon islands or the region.

But Sogavare said he found it “very, very offensive” that Canberra had flatly denied it refused to allow Australian police and defence force personnel to protect Chinese-built infrastructure and the Chinese embassy during last year’s riots in Honiara.

He said Solomon Islands was left “with no option but to enter into security agreement with our other bilateral partners to plug the gaps that exist in our security agreement with Australia”.

“Solomon Islands is grateful for the security agreement that it has with Australia,” Sogavare said.

“However, the riots in 2006 and most recently the November riots have shown that even with Australia’s support we could not prevent half of Honiara from being razed to the ground.”

Sogavare said a stable Solomon Islands would lead to a stable Pacific and his country did not “subscribe to the view that only a partner or partners of the same ideology is able to do that”.

On Thursday, a key adviser to the premier of the most populous province in Solomon Islands expressed concern that the deal could enable Sogavare to use Chinese armed police and military personnel to quash democratic dissent and hold power for years to come.

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World

US warns Solomon Islands against China military base as Australian MPs trade blame | Asia Pacific

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The US government has warned Solomon Islands it will “respond accordingly” if its security agreement with China leads to a Chinese military presence in the Pacific island nation.

A visiting US delegation including Indo-Pacific security adviser Kurt Campbell delivered the message to the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, directly, the White House said, as fallout over the agreement continued to dominate the Australian federal election campaign.

Details of the agreement have not been made public. But according to a draft version of the deal, it would allow armed Chinese police to be deployed at Solomon Islands’ request to maintain “social order”. It would also allow China to “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands”, and Chinese forces could also be used “to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands”.

In a statement, the Biden administration said Sogavare assured the US there would be no long-term Chinese presence on the islands. But the US would nevertheless “follow developments closely in consultation with regional partners”.

“Solomon Islands representatives indicated that the agreement had solely domestic applications but the US delegation noted there are potential regional security implications of the accord, including for the United States and its allies and partners,” the White House said in a statement.

“The US delegation outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose, scope and transparency of the agreement.

“If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly.”

The White House also committed to expedite the reopening of its embassy in Honiara.

On Saturday morning the Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, refused to be drawn on when the government became aware of the agreement.

It had been reported by the Nine newspapers earlier this week that Australian intelligence agencies first became aware in March, and played a role in leaking the draft of the agreement online.

But the failure of the Morrison government to prevent the deal has been described by the opposition Labor party as the most significant foreign policy failure in the Pacific since the second world war.

Frydenberg would not say when Australia first knew of the pact between the Solomon Islands and China, saying instead that “we’ve known that this was always a risk”, adding that “we’ve known that there were discussions under way”.

He also told Weekend Sunrise that the government could do little more to assist Solomon Islands, describing its existing aid as a “full court press”.

The Coalition government continued to try and use the issue to paint Labor as soft on China, with Frydenberg describing a speech by Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, in 2019 as the “biggest story” of the day.

Marles – who was campaigning alongside Jim Chalmers in Brisbane due to Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s infection with Covid – confirmed reports he had shown Chinese government officials a copy of a speech he gave at a Beijing university in 2019.

“I made a speech in China where I criticised China and I wanted to make sure that the Chinese government were not at all surprised with what I was going to say,” Marles said.

“The assertion made by the government is another desperate attempt to divert from their failings in the Pacific.”

Senior Labor MP Tanya Plibersek said on Saturday morning that Solomon Islands’ security pact followed “years of neglect” by the Australian government.

Asked what Labor would have done differently from the Coalition, she said: “We wouldn’t have trashed the relationship with our Pacific neighbours in the first place.

“It is inexplicable that, having been warned about this, [prime minister] Scott Morrison didn’t say to his foreign minister, Marise Payne, I want you on the first plane to the Solomon Islands to talk this through.”

The reaction to the deal in the Solomons has been mixed.

Peter Kenilorea, the chair of the Solomon Islands’ parliament’s foreign relations committee and an opposition MP, described the agreement as only benefiting China.

During a forum hosted this week, Kenilorea also questioned Sogavare’s contention that his government was entitled to reach the agreement as it was a sovereign decision.

“I don’t think is a path we should take or that it is a path would benefit Solomon Islands,” he said. “I think the biggest winner here will be the People’s Republic of China, in terms of a foothold in the Pacific region.”

He went on to say that “when it comes to security, especially in this heightened geopolitical environment, it is more than a national issue … the region is impacted, there are implications”.

Another participant in the forum, leading Solomon Islands academic Dr Transform Aqorau, said it was concerning that no one outside the government had seen a copy of the signed agreement or been provided with any detail of its content, but said he did not see anything wrong with an agreement that bolstered the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF).

But former Solomon Islands prime minister and current MP Danny Philip told the same forum that the agreement would help ensure Chinese assets were protected in the country, after Australian security forces that were deployed there failed to do so. His claims were rejected by Australian authorities.

Associated Press and Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

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Business

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon says he expects lower returns in stocks over next few years

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David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, April 29, 2019.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Investors shouldn’t expect the bull run in stocks and other assets to continue at current levels, according to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

Equities are on track to enjoy three straight years of double-digit returns, as measured by the S&P 500, thanks in part to the extraordinary support provided by the Federal Reserve and other central banks at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. That boom has spilled over into other assets, including real estate, art and cryptocurrencies.

“We would expect that we’re not going to see the same rate of returns in equities and many other assets over the next few years that we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” Solomon said Tuesday in response to a question from Joe Kernen on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“I’m not a believer that double-digit equity returns compounding in perpetuity is something as an investor you should expect,” Solomon said. “I’ve been involved with a number of investment committees and charitable foundations, college boards, etc, and certainly my mindset is the returns we’ve received over the last three to five years are different than what we should expect as we go forward.”

Solomon, who leads one of the world’s premier global investment banks, was asked to weigh in on a slew of topics from inflation to bitcoin, China and the return to office work.

While banks have rebounded from concerns last year that the pandemic would crimp revenue, Solomon said that he still felt shares of Goldman were relatively undervalued. Goldman shares have surged about 48% this year.

“Like any other CEO, you know, I think that my company and my stock is underappreciated and undervalued,” Solomon said. “I think the earnings power of the traditional financial services sector is quite powerful, and we get very, very low multiple on those earnings.”

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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World

Solomon Islands protests: 3 burned bodies found in Chinatown in Honiara following days of unrest

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Police are investigating the cause of their death and their identities, and do not have further information to disclose at this point, Solomon Islands police media officer Desmond Rave told CNN on Saturday.

“Honiara is quite tense at the moment, but the city is getting back to normal,” Rave said.

Security forces have been unable to halt unrest in Honiara that began on Wednesday with protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and the looting and burning of shops and businesses.

Many of the protesters come from the most populous province of Malaita, where there is resentment toward the government and opposition to its 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China, according to Reuters.

Demonstrators are also calling for the government to limit ties with China, respect the rights of self-determination of the Malaita people, and to resume development projects in Malaita province.

More than 100 people have been arrested as of Saturday, according to police, who appealed to rioters to stop looting and burning buildings and warned of further arrests if the unrest does not stop.

To bolster local police, troops from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) arrived in Honiara on Friday, Australia’s High Commissioner to the Islands confirmed on Saturday.

Sharing a photograph of a RAAF C-17 troop transporter landing in the capital, Dr. Lachlan Strahan, Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands tweeted, “The ADF arrives in Honiara!”

Australia’s Joint Operations Command released photos on Saturday of soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Brigade, 6th Brigade and 17th Brigade disembarking military transport aircraft as part of the “emergency assistance mission.”

The Australian peacekeepers have been deployed at the request of the government of the Solomon Islands. Their arrival comes after a third night of violence that saw the Prime Minister’s residence come under attack and large parts of the capital reduced to ashes, according to Agence France-Presse journalists in Honiara.

Australia’s Ministry of Defense said it had also deployed the Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Armidale to the Islands to support local forces in maritime security.

Papua New Guinea also deployed a security team to the Solomon Islands on Friday following a request from the Pacific island nation, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement.

The security team, comprised of 20 police and 15 correctional service members, is deployed to assist Solomon Islands’ police to “stop looting and vandalism” in Honiara, and is subject to increase if the need arises, the statement read.

The Solomon Islands government on Friday declared a nightly curfew and advised all public servants to stay at home. The curfew will last from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, effective from Friday.

“During the period, only authorized officers are allowed to move within the city,” a government statement said.

On Friday, the central government advised all public servants to stay at home due to the unrest, with the exception of essential workers, and encouraged staff to ensure they had food supplies “due to the uncertainty of the current situation.”

On Thursday, a local journalist said fires were blazing in Chinatown, and the police had lost control in eastern Honiara.

Elizabeth Osifelo in Honiara and CNN’s Helen Regan contributed reporting.

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World

Solomon Islands protests: 3 burned bodies found in Chinatown in Honiara following days of unrest

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Police are investigating the cause of their death and their identities, and do not have further information to disclose at this point, Solomon Islands police media officer Desmond Rave told CNN on Saturday.

“Honiara is quite tense at the moment, but the city is getting back to normal,” Rave said.

Security forces have been unable to halt unrest in Honiara that began on Wednesday with protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and the looting and burning of shops and businesses.

Many of the protesters come from the most populous province of Malaita, where there is resentment toward the government and opposition to its 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China, according to Reuters.

Demonstrators are also calling for the government to limit ties with China, respect the rights of self-determination of the Malaita people, and to resume development projects in Malaita province.

More than 100 people have been arrested as of Saturday, according to police, who appealed to rioters to stop looting and burning buildings and warned of further arrests if the unrest does not stop.

To bolster local police, troops from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) arrived in Honiara on Friday, Australia’s High Commissioner to the Islands confirmed on Saturday.

Sharing a photograph of a RAAF C-17 troop transporter landing in the capital, Dr. Lachlan Strahan, Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands tweeted, “The ADF arrives in Honiara!”

Australia’s Joint Operations Command released photos on Saturday of soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Brigade, 6th Brigade and 17th Brigade disembarking military transport aircraft as part of the “emergency assistance mission.”

The Australian peacekeepers have been deployed at the request of the government of the Solomon Islands. Their arrival comes after a third night of violence that saw the Prime Minister’s residence come under attack and large parts of the capital reduced to ashes, according to Agence France-Presse journalists in Honiara.

Australia’s Ministry of Defense said it had also deployed the Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Armidale to the Islands to support local forces in maritime security.

Papua New Guinea also deployed a security team to the Solomon Islands on Friday following a request from the Pacific island nation, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement.

The security team, comprised of 20 police and 15 correctional service members, is deployed to assist Solomon Islands’ police to “stop looting and vandalism” in Honiara, and is subject to increase if the need arises, the statement read.

The Solomon Islands government on Friday declared a nightly curfew and advised all public servants to stay at home. The curfew will last from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, effective from Friday.

“During the period, only authorized officers are allowed to move within the city,” a government statement said.

On Friday, the central government advised all public servants to stay at home due to the unrest, with the exception of essential workers, and encouraged staff to ensure they had food supplies “due to the uncertainty of the current situation.”

On Thursday, a local journalist said fires were blazing in Chinatown, and the police had lost control in eastern Honiara.

Elizabeth Osifelo in Honiara and CNN’s Helen Regan contributed reporting.

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World

3 Bodies Found May Be Tied to Protests in Solomon Islands

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MELBOURNE, Australia — After days of riots in the Solomon Islands during which protesters called for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to resign, set buildings ablaze and looted stores, authorities on Saturday said they had found the bodies of three people in a burned-out building.

They are the first reported deaths following days of violent protests in Honiara, the nation’s capital. The three bodies, which were burned, had been found in the remains of one store in the Chinatown district, a police spokesman said. The police were investigating the deaths, he said.

It’s unclear if the deaths are directly linked to the protests, but they come after officials in China have urged the Solomon Islands to protect Chinese citizens and businesses. Honiara’s Chinatown was one of the areas most heavily targeted by protesters.

The decision by the Solomon Islands’ central government to switch its diplomatic relationship from Taiwan to China in 2019 was the driving force behind the protests, according to experts, with the move exacerbating social and political fault lines dividing the nation.

Many of the protesters came from Malaita, the country’s most populous island, to the island of Guadalcanal, where the capital is. The strained relationship between the two islands, over a perceived unequal distribution of economic resources and development that has left Malaita one of the poorest provinces in the nation, stretches back decades. Its provincial government has maintained a relationship with Taiwan in contravention of the central government’s decision to diplomatically align with Beijing.

On Wednesday, a planned demonstration turned violent as protesters stormed Parliament calling for Mr. Sogavare’s resignation. On the streets, they clashed with police officers, who used tear gas and fired shots. The demonstrators burned down a police station, a high school, and numerous buildings in Chinatown. They looted stores and tried to ransack Mr. Sogavare’s personal residence before being pushed back by the police.

As the protests raged, opposition parliamentarians and Daniel Suidani, the premier of Malaita, intensified calls for Mr. Sogavare to step down. But he has refused, saying, “If I am removed as prime minister, it will be on the floor of Parliament.”

The Chinese embassy called on Chinese residents in Honiara to shut their businesses and hire security guards, while a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said that China was “taking all necessary measures to safeguard the safety and lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens and institutions in Solomon Islands.”

The police said Saturday that they had arrested over 100 people in relation to the riots, and the police commissioner appealed for residents to “respect each other, as well as our visiting friends from abroad.”

On Saturday morning, the rioting had largely stopped and the streets were quiet, according to local journalists and social media, and police officers and peacekeeping troops patrolled the streets. Australia sent around 100 police officers and soldiers on Thursday and Friday to help stabilize the situation, and Papua New Guinea sent 35 police and correctional service personnel on Friday.

More than 1,500 Asian migrants have reportedly been displaced by the turmoil, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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World

Solomon Islands: Why Are People Protesting?

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MELBOURNE, Australia — Protests rocked the capital of the Solomon Islands on Thursday for the second straight day as people clashed with the police and demanded that Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare resign. Some set buildings ablaze and looted stores.

Protesters were met by police tear gas and rubber bullets on Wednesday after they stormed the national Parliament in the capital, Honiara, and set a police station and buildings in Chinatown on fire, the authorities said. On Thursday, more buildings went up in flames. Outnumbered, the police set up a heavily guarded barricade to stop demonstrators from entering the city’s main business district.

On Thursday afternoon, the Australian government announced that, after a request for assistance from Mr. Sogavare, it would send a peacekeeping force to the Solomon Islands.

Here’s what we know about the unrest.

Many of the protesters had traveled from the island of Malaita to Guadalcanal Island, which houses the nation’s capital, according to officials and local news reports.

Experts say discontent has simmered for decades between the two islands, mainly over a perceived unequal distribution of resources and a lack of economic support that has left Malaita one of the least-developed provinces in the island nation.

There has also been lingering dissatisfaction in Malaita over the central government’s decision in 2019 to switch diplomatic allegiances to Beijing from Taipei, Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Beijing of bribing Solomons politicians to abandon Taipei in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China under the Communist Party.

The Solomon Islands is an archipelago made up of nearly a thousand islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 miles northeast of Australia. The island chain has a population of 710,000, primarily farmers and fishers.

Malaita is the most populous of the islands, with residents numbering 160,500 as of last year. Densely forested, mountainous and volcanic, it lies 30 miles northeast of Guadalcanal, the larger island, across Indispensable Strait.

The island nation found itself in a heightened geopolitical tug of war because of the 2019 decision, which dealt a blow both to Taipei’s global standing and to Washington’s regional diplomacy.

The United States sees the Solomon Islands, and other Pacific nations, as crucial in preventing China from asserting influence in the region.

China has been investing heavily in the Pacific, to the alarm of U.S. officials. In 2019, a Chinese company signed an agreement to lease one of the islands, but the agreement was subsequently ruled illegal by the attorney general of the Solomon Islands.

This is not the first time China’s presence on the islands has been a source of contention. In 2006, riots broke out amid rumors that the election of an unpopular prime minister had been influenced by Chinese or Taiwanese money.

Some experts draw a straight line from the 2019 decision to this week’s unrest.

Behind the riots was “quite a lot of unhappiness about that switch,” said Sinclair Dinnen, an associate professor at the Australian National University’s Department of Pacific Affairs.

Malaita’s premier, Daniel Suidani, has been a vocal critic of that decision by the prime minister, and Malaita continues to maintain a relationship with and receive support from Taiwan — in contravention to the central government’s position, said Mihai Sora, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute and a former Australian diplomat stationed in the Solomon Islands.

With the United States providing Malaita with direct foreign aid while China supports the central government, existing fractures in the nation have deepened, he said.

“Geostrategic competition does not by itself trigger rioting,” Mr. Sora said, “but it’s the actions of these large nations as they curry sympathy with local actors — favoring some over others to pursue their own strategic objectives without pausing to consider what are already deep social and political undercurrents in the country — that have a destabilizing effect on social cohesion.”

After hundreds of people took to the streets and set fire to a building near Parliament, Mr. Sogavare announced a 36-hour curfew: from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Friday.

He accused the protesters of being politically motivated, saying in a video address, “Today our nation witnessed another sad and unfortunate event aimed at bringing a democratically elected government down.”

Mr. Sogavare vowed that the authorities would find the protests’ organizers and bring them to justice.

The Chinese Embassy in Honiara said in a statement posted on social media Wednesday that it had “asked the Solomon Islands to take all necessary measures to strengthen the protection of Chinese businesses and people.” It also advised Chinese residents in “high-risk areas” to shut their businesses and hire security guards.

On Thursday, it noted that numerous shops, banks and warehouses had been burned.

Inter-island tensions spurred civil conflict between militias on the two main islands from 1998 to 2003, during a period known as “the tensions.” That led to the deployment of an Australia- and New Zealand-led peacekeeping force from 2003 to 2017.

On Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia announced that Australia would send more than 100 police officers and military forces to the Solomon Islands to “provide stability and security.” Twenty-three police officers would arrive immediately (up to 50 more may make the trip), and 43 military personnel would follow.

Mr. Sora, the former Australian diplomat, said that although small-scale civil unrest had not been unusual in recent years, and that the local police had been able to control such episodes, the latest protests had evidently escalated beyond what the local authorities could handle.

On Tuesday, before the protests started but as Malaitians had started to converge on the capital, a group of federal Malaitan members of Parliament called on Mr. Suidani and protest leaders to “refrain from inciting Malaitans to engage in unlawful activities.” They also urged opposition parliamentarians to “refrain from fanning the flames of violence and incitement.”

But by Thursday, 15 buildings were on fire or had been burned down in Chinatown, as well as 10 more in a nearby industrial zone, according to Nathan Ruser, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He cross-referenced on-the-ground videos and photos with maps of the area to estimate the number.

Videos posted to social media showed large crowds gathering in Chinatown as plumes of smoke billow from buildings.

Other individuals and groups had latched on to the protests for various reasons, Dr. Dinnen said. Machinations by the political opposition to unseat the government, and opportunistic rioters, had contributed to the size of the crowds, he said.

Elizabeth Osifelo contributed reporting from Honiara, Solomon Islands.



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