Is US Plotting Electoral Coup in Solomon Islands?
The US and its allies received an unpleasant surprise in 2022 after the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, ripping a hole in Washington’s “Island Chain Strategy” for “containing” Beijing. As a local election looms, a Sputnik inquiry based on expert analysis and insider testimony reveals how the US Empire plans to strike back.
■ Residents of the Solomon Islands will go to the polls for general elections on April 17 to elect a new parliament and prime minister, with the vote expected to determine the country’s future both domestically and vis-à-vis the escalating security competition between the US and China in the Pacific region.
■ Manasseh Sogavare, a veteran Solomon Islands politician who has served as the island nation's prime minister for a total of about 11 years through four nonconsecutive terms going back to the year 2000, is running for reelection. Sogavare began to display an independent streak in foreign affairs in 2018-2019, when the Solomons signed on to China's Belt and Road Initiative, and ditched diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of formal relations with the People's Republic.
■ In November 2021, violent riots triggered by the Taiwan/PRC recognition switch saw an attempt by protestors to storm parliament and oust Sogavare, with rioters setting fire to a police station, burning down businesses and looting the Chinatown district in Honiara, the Solomons' capital. Sogavare blamed “foreign powers” for the unrest, accusing outside forces of feeding rioters “false and deliberate lies about the switch.”