Can you blame poor countries for turning to China?

Among the few regular reminders of the West comes when an unexploded American or Japanese World War II bomb blows up, killing or maiming villagers. I lost a cousin last year, a promising young university graduate killed at a barbecue with friends. This unseen threat also inhibits economic progress because of the risk of developing land containing 80-year-old explosives just waiting to detonate.

Australia and New Zealand have been major donors, typically through aid programs focused on strengthening our public institutions. But as important as these efforts are, they are largely invisible to young Solomon Islanders who need jobs or vocational training in things like carpentry or masonry to address a persistent shortage of skilled labor and to put food on the table. Overall, Australian aid has fallen over the years.

China’s growing presence, on the other hand, has become impossible to miss in Honiara, the capital. Chineserun businesses – construction, hardware, fishing, transport and other sectors – have quickly become part of the local economy since our government established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 2019.

That meant severing longtime relations with China’s rival Taiwan, an unpopular move. But minds are slowly changing. Chinese construction companies are building a new wing that will significantly upgrade our main hospital and a long-overdue stadium that will host the Pacific Games next year. China’s profile has been rising across the Pacific.

While Solomon Islands trade with the United States is negligible, China is our biggest trading partner by far. And it has not gone unnoticed here that China has taken meaningful measures to reduce carbon emissions, while American and Australian politicians have dithered or, in the case of Australia, even made light of climate concerns in the Pacific.

Many of us worry about the consequences of cozying up to China, and lingering suspicion contributed to rioting in Honiara in November.

But at the very least, the United States and Australia have been forced to notice us again. They are pledging to be more involved, there are plans to reopen the US embassy in Honiara and Peace Corps volunteers are returning. Washington and Canberra are now saying that we in the Pacific matter to them. They will need to back that up with sustained action. Their wartime sacrifices saved us long ago. But loyalty does not last forever. It must be earned. Small, fragile but strategic countries like mine have no choice but to chart our own course, with whatever friends we can find.