As China opens embassy in Solomon Islands, a bitter feud over values fuels separatist bid

When China officially opened its embassy to the Solomon Islands this week, exactly a year after wooing the Pacific Island nation away from Taiwan, there were smiles all around.

“Today marks a new era of relations that signifies the permanent friendship of the People’s Republic of China and the Solomon Islands, as co-members of the United Nations,” local media reported Sogavare saying on Monday during an opening ceremony in the capital Honiara. “It involved correcting the mistakes of the past and respecting each other’s territorial boundaries.”

At the same moment about 100km away – authorities in Malaita, the most populous of the country’s nine provinces – were in the middle of preparations for an independence referendum fuelled by growing suspicion and acrimony towards China.

The planned vote, which Malaita’s Premier Daniel Suidani says could take place within weeks, marks the culmination of a long-running bitter feud between provincial and central authorities related to government representation and lagging development. Honiara’s ties with Beijing and its embrace of Chinese investors have further aggravated these divisions. The ructions – occurring as they have amid growing competition for influence in the Pacific between China and the United States with its allies – highlight the difficulties facing outside powers who wish to win friends and exert influence in Pacific Island nations with complex histories and internal politics.