The Chinese community of Honiara is surveying the destruction of their lives, rent by mindless hooliganism in the Solomon Islands' capital over the past few weeks. And Australia is continuing to blame Taiwan and Beijing for meddling in the country's internal politics.
The announcement that Snyder Rini would be the country's new prime minister sparked the looting and rioting that destroyed the Chinatown area of Honiara. The Chinese community felt the ire of the anti-Rini forces, who think Mr Rini and his government is too heavily influenced by Taipei - and by local Chinese business interests in this impoverished Pacific country of half a million people.
These claims appear to have fallen on fertile ground in Australia. That's because Australia, along with New Zealand, has taken a leading role in trying to stabilise the troubled Pacific state over the past five years and now sees its efforts being undermined. Many in the Canberra government and the Australian Labor Party opposition believe that Taiwan, with its 'chequebook diplomacy', has undermined Australian-led efforts to link aid and security assistance to improved governance and transparency in the Solomon Islands.
Unlike Australia, the Solomon Islands gives its diplomatic recognition to Taipei, not Beijing.
A leading Solomon Islands opposition politician - Joseph Tuhanuku, leader of the Solomons Labour Party - found supporters in Australia when he claimed that 'Taiwanese dirty money' had found its way into the hands of pro-Rini candidates during the recent election.
'Taiwan is running a shadow aid programme that is being used to corrupt our political processes, and the prime minister is fully colluding with them,' he said.