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. 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. 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. Densely forested, mountainous and volcanic, it lies 30 miles northeast of Guadalcanal, the larger island, across Indispensable Strait. Malaita is the most populous of the islands, with residents numbering 160,500 as of last year. Many of the protesters had traveled from the island of Malaita to Guadalcanal Island, which houses the nation’s capital. Australia’s police officers are heading to the islands.ĭiscontent 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. The protestors want to bring down the “democratically elected government”, Sogavare said. The protestors who disagree with the policy of the government and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, have set fire to the parliament building and looted stores in capital’s downtown area. Riots rock the Pacific Solomon Islands for a second day.
#A colonist who supported the colonial insurgency full
Expansion of the Solomon Islands by China encourages civil unrest in the region, leads to violence, as separatist movements emerge full blown.