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SCMP’s Asia desk

In a fiery campaign speech, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare criticised democracy for promoting LGBTQ culture and lauded China’s system of governance for its economic success.
It comes at a time when Beijing is vying with Australia and the US for influence over the Pacific nation, with Sogavare being the foremost proponent for closer ties with China.
The prime minister, who is widely expected to win reelection on April 17, told a campaign rally in Auki, the capital city of Malaita Province, that democracy allows you to “do whatever you want”.
“Men can marry men, women can marry women – [those] are the principles associated with the values of democracy,” he said.
Solomon Islands’ pro-China leader pledges to continue Australia balancing act
“You have to ask yourself, what values are you comfortable with as a Christian country?”
The Solomon Islands is a highly conservative Christian-majority nation in which same-sex relations are illegal for both men and women.
Sogavare also said China had embraced a “socialist system of government” that was “Chinese style”, which fuelled its economic progress.
“You don’t see beggars in China asking for money … [you] see that in every major city in the United States [and] it’s supposed to be the number one economy in the world,” he said.
Sogavare added his decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China “put the Solomon Islands on the map”.

The Solomon Islands established a bilateral relationship with Beijing in 2019 after cutting ties with Taiwan, attracting large amounts of aid and investment from the economic giant.
Last year, China rolled out the red carpet for Sogavare and signed a raft of deals, including one allowing it to maintain its police presence in the island nation until 2025.
The two sides also signed a security pact in 2022, alarming the US and Australia, who feared that China could use it to establish a military foothold in the South Pacific.
During his speech in Malaita, which opposed switching ties in 2019, Sogavare touted the economic benefits of aligning with China.
“For the past 45, years we have been struggling to make headway in development under [the previous] arrangement [with Taiwan],” he said.
The four-time prime minister said the ruling party’s “superior understanding of the new political reality has allowed him to make astute foreign policy decisions”.
The country hosted the 2023 Pacific Games in a new China-funded stadium that Sogavare projected as a key achievement of his government.
Solomon Islands hosts China-funded Pacific Games amid big-power rivalry
In 2021, he announced plans to suspend the 2023 election to manage the event, triggering anti-government riots that resulted in the capital city of Honiara’s Chinatown being torched.
Peter Kenilorea Jnr, Sogavare’s main rival, has pledged to revoke the security agreement with Beijing if he takes office.
“The burden to develop our beloved Solomon Islands does not rest on the shoulders of any of our development partners, no way, [it] rests squarely on the shoulders of the government and people of Solomon Islands themselves,” Australia’s public broadcaster ABC quoted him saying.
Meanwhile, Sogavare’s party last week accused the electoral commission of not being “impartial” and claimed Australia, a major donor for the agency, was trying to influence the next month’s poll.
Chief electoral officer Jasper Anis rejected the allegations, saying the commission was an independent body.


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Pacific nations

Solomon Islands PM praises China’s governance while criticising democracy as immoral

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare addressing the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 22, 2023. Photo: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China July 10, 2023. Photo: Handout via Reuters

New Zealand and China still have ‘significant differences’, despite Wang Yi’s ‘charm offensive’ visit

New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters (right) shakes hands with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a bilateral meeting at Parliament in Wellington on Monday. Photo: AFP

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters in Wellington on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Ships are docked offshore in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. China signed a secretive security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022. Photo: AP

A Philippine resupply vessel (left) is hit by two Chinese coastguard water canons as it tried to enter the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea on March 5. Photo: AP

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Wellington on Monday. Luxon is expected to visit China in the coming months. Photo: Xinhua

Displaced Palestinians inspect the damage to their tents following overnight Israeli bombardment at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

As China’s Pacific influence grows, Japan eyes deeper ties with island nations amid their domestic woes

Protesters on the streets of Fiji’s capital city Suva rally against Japan’s release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in August last year. Photo: AFP

A ministerial meeting among Japan and Pacific nations is held in the Fijian capital Suva on February 12. Photo: Kyodo

People in Seoul, South Korea, protest against Japan’s planned discharge of radioactive waste water. Photo: Xinhua

Tanks containing radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma. Photo: EPA-EFE

As Papua New Guinea vows return to normality after deadly riots and looting, will chaos mar its US, China ties?

Looters leave shops with goods amid a state of unrest in Port Moresby on  January 10. Photo: AFP 

This screen grab from shows people carrying items as crowds leave shops with looted goods amid a state of unrest in Port Moresby. Photo: AFP

A damaged shop amid a state of unrest in Port Moresby. Photo: AFP

Fiji woos China for upgrade of ‘strategically important’ ports even as debt concerns mount

(231116) -- SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16, 2023 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in San Francisco, the United States, Nov. 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

Locals sit on a wall situated on the foreshore of the harbour in the Fiji capital of Suva. Fiji’s deep water port access appeals to Beijing as the contest for influence across the Pacific heats up. Photo: Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in San Francisco, where the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Apec summit. Photo: Xinhua

The harbour and pier area at Fiji’s port of Lautoka on the west coast of the main island Viti Levu are often busy with container ships and cruise ships. Photo: Shutterstock 

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Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh told a campaign rally that democracy allows you to ‘do whatever you want’
He lauded China’s system of government and its economic success at a time when Beijing is trying to increase its influence on the Pacific nation


Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh told a campaign rally that democracy allows you to “do whatever you want”


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