Chinese Firm Wins Bid to Upgrade Solomon Islands International Seaport

Armidale Class Patrol Boat, HMAS Armidale patrols the coast of Honiara, Solomon Islands on Dec. 4, 2021. CPL Brodie Cross/ADF

The Solomon Islands government has handed a multimillion-dollar contract for a port upgrade to China’s largest construction company.

The state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction Co. was the only company to bid for the project, according to government sources.

“This will be upgrading the old international port in Honiara and two domestic wharves in the provinces,” Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told Reuters.

The two upgrades are to take place in Makira and Renbel provinces and together form part of a $170 million funding deal from the Asian Development Bank.

The announcement comes nearly a year after Beijing and the Solomon Islands leadership (under Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare) signed a security pact that would allow the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the region.

Beijing’s Influence Deepens

Relations between the parties have deepened with Beijing winning commercial deals in the Pacific nation while at the same time, revelations continue to emerge of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intention to militarise the area.

In April 2021, a leaked letter from the Avic International Project Engineering Co. emerged that the Beijing-based company was actively looking for locations to develop naval infrastructure in the country.

In July of that year, documents uncovered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that the China Forestry Group Corp.—under the direct control of Beijing—was also scoping out sites for acquisition, including a forestry plantation on the island of Kolombangara—the site of extensive fighting between the Allies and Imperial Japan during World War II.

The plantation covers two-thirds of the island and includes 14,000 hectares (almost 34,600 acres) of hardwood forest, 24,000 hectares of protected forest, large tracts of flat land, a deep-water port, and a World War II-era airstrip.

Later in August, the Solomons government agreed to a 448.9-million-yuan ($66.15 million) loan from the Chinese state-owned Export-Import Bank of China to fund the construction of 161 towers by controversial telecommunications giant Huawei.

Huawei has been blocked from developing the 5G networks of several developed countries because of security and privacy concerns.

These concerns stem in part from Beijing’s doctrine of civil and military fusion.

Under this doctrine, benign or civilian developments can be repurposed for military use, including academic research, new technologies, and infrastructure such as ports or telecommunications.

The Pacific nation of Kiribati has also faced scrutiny after requesting Beijing conduct a feasibility study to upgrade an old airstrip on the island of Kanton.

The Solomons and Kiribati are valued for their strategic position that could potentially extend the reach of Beijing beyond the South China Sea.

In response, democratic nations have pushed back with major diplomatic efforts in the region.

The AUKUS agreement will deepen ties among Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom by codifying several existing military partnerships and creating new ones.

Notably, AUKUS will see Australia armed with nuclear-powered submarines—one of the few nations in the world to have such weapons—in a move to reshape the power balance in the region.