There has been a recent development in economic cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands, with the decision to hand over to Chinese companies the upgrade project for the Honiara International Port, which will be worth millions of dollars.
Solomon Islands, an island country in the South Pacific, located in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, belongs to the Lanesian Islands, with a total of more than 990 islands, a land area of about 28,400 square kilometers, a maritime exclusive economic zone of about 1.6 million square kilometers, and its capital is Honiara, which is also the turning point of World War II in the Pacific Ocean. The port of Honiara is located in the southwest of Solomon Islands.
China Civil Engineering Corporation won the contract to help the Solomon Islands government upgrade Honiara's old international port and two provincial ports. And after Chinese companies won the project, the United States objected.
The Solomon Islands reached a framework agreement on security cooperation with Beijing last year, raising concerns between the United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, about China's ambitions to establish a so-called naval base in the region, which the United States must not allow to happen.
To that end, Campbell, the U.S. coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, visited Honiara to obstruct the project.
First of all, the Solomon Islands and other Pacific island countries have emphasized that there is no expansion plan for the above-mentioned ports, and the cooperation between China and Pacific island countries such as the Solomon Islands is based on equality and mutual benefit. But there are still some countries that jump out and express "unhappy".
Why is the United States worried
Why is the United States so worried about China's establishment of a naval base in the Solomon Islands? From the perspective of geographical location, the South Pacific region connects the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, guards the Pacific transportation route from the Americas to Asia, occupies the international shipping routes from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere and even the South Pole, and is the intersection of the two strategic passages of the world's east and west and north and south, so it has become a strategic point attached great importance to by major powers. There are still many strategic islands in the South Pacific region, many of which have many harbors, strong supply capacity and great military use value. At the same time, there are three major archipelagos: Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Therefore, although it does not resemble the intercontinental strait located in the developed region, under the new international system and international geopolitics, the role of the strategic passage of the South Pacific region cannot be ignored.
After World War II, the U.S. attitude toward the South Pacific region was a "benignneglect." At the same time, behind this attitude of the United States towards the South Pacific is not only to put more security concerns in the Northwest Pacific and Southeast Asia, but also at the security level. After World War II, although the United States left its ace navy in the South Pacific, at the security level, it controlled the South Pacific with the West through the "Australia-New Zealand-US Alliance".
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the security concerns of the United States were mainly the active participation of other major powers in the world in regional affairs. However, the United States has always regarded the South Pacific region as its "inner lake," so its maritime control over the region has never changed.
In the South Pacific, the Freely Associated States, along with the Northern Mariana Islands, form the security border of the United States. Among them, the state of free association provides a broad buffer area for Guam, which is the "forward bridgehead" for the United States to launch operations in the Asia-Pacific security arc from South Korea to Japan. It can be said that since the United States implemented the "return to the Asia-Pacific" strategy, the South Pacific region has become an important part of the US global maritime strategy by virtue of its special geographical advantages. The region is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, close to Southeast Asia, Australia and Guam.
Therefore, when Chinese companies establish economic cooperation with the Southwest Pacific Islands, the United States is very opposed and resistant, which is why after China obtained the Solomon Islands port project, the United States and its allies, including Japan and Australia, are claiming "concern".
The United States has no right to interfere in any of China's actions
But this concern of the United States is unjustified, even if China builds a naval base in the Solomon Islands, this is a matter between China and the Solomon Islands, and the United States has no right to interfere.
Unlike China and the United States, China's cooperation with other countries is based on equality and reciprocity, the Southwest Pacific is an important part of China's southern route to build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and China has clearly pointed out that the key direction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is from China's coastal ports through the South China Sea to the South Pacific.
In fact, as early as 2017, Liang Jiarui, an expert on foreign relations of Pacific island countries, said that in order to implement the national strategy and regional strategy and expand the maritime strategic space, China must advance into the South Pacific region and control the maritime strategic passages in the region.
If a reasonable strategic fulcrum can be found, the passive situation of the mainland will be greatly improved. Due to the existence of strategic fulcrums, the mainland's maritime distant-sea forces can be supplied and guaranteed, which can give play to the strategic role of China's naval forces, reduce excessive dependence on traditional choke points such as the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, and the Strait of Hormuz, and more fully ensure the smooth progress of economic cooperation between China and island countries in the southwest Pacific region.
As Agence France-Presse said, Chinese companies won a contract to develop a key port in the Solomon Islands, a major victory for Beijing in its quest to gain a strategic foothold in the South Pacific, where the Solomon Islands has unexpectedly become the epicenter of a diplomatic wrangling between China and the United States. China should start its layout!