Caleb Bond: Australia can’t afford to play catch up once it is in the firing line

Why does China want a deal with the Solomon Islands that allows them to park ships there if they have no intention of using the nation as some sort of base, writes Caleb Bond.

China’s threat to Australia is no longer a joke or just a matter of too many Chinese nationals owning cattle farms.

A planned “security deal” between China and the Solomon Islands is something of which we should be not just wary but worried.

Australia has its own security agreement with the Solomon Islands. It was under this agreement that we last year sent more than 100 police officers and defence personnel when civil unrest broke out and people tried to topple Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Part of this unrest was fuelled by Sogavare’s decision in 2019 to switch the Solomon Islands’ diplomatic allegiance from the beleaguered democracy of Taiwan to the powerhouse communist dictatorship of its neighbour – China.

When Sogavare was under treat because of his closeness to China, we accepted his plea to physically defend his government. Now he repays us by opening the door for China to strengthen its military strength in the South Pacific – just 2000km from the Queensland border – and opening up the possibility of China eventually establishing a military base on our doorstep.

That is a suggestion that has been derided by China as “utterly misinformation”. But of course the Chinese Communist Party would say that.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

“The world has entered into (the) 21st century but regrettably some people are still indulged in Cold War and colonial mentality,” a Chinese embassy spokesman said last week.

“Some people claim that Pacific Island countries are their own ‘backyard’, hype ‘China military threat’, (and) try to create tensions and confrontation in the region.”

It’s all a bit rich coming from China. They are the only mob creating tensions in the Pacific region.

Pray tell – why does China want a deal with the Solomon Islands that would allow them to park their ships there if they had no intention of using the nation as some sort of base?

Yes, the current proposal is not to immediately establish an official military base. But it is clear evidence of how China is ramping up its moves in the Pacific and one step in a long process that could lead to a permanent base.

It is not a process that can or will happen overnight. And China understands this well.

It has, for some time, been engaging in what is known as debt-trap diplomacy. China hands out billions of dollars in loans and foreign aid to small nations in the Pacific.

These are small nations that might eventually struggle to repay that money. And there is no such thing as a free lunch.

In the short term, it increases China’s soft influence in the region. In the long term, it opens the potential for China to find hard influence by asking these nations for something more than money if they fail to repay their debts.

China is essentially buying up small islands all around Australia and further afield near our allies, including New Zealand and the US.

China tried to do this on Australian soil with its Belt and Road scheme. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had signed his state up to Chinese funding before the federal government stepped in and tore it up because it was a national security risk.

The fact an Australian premier thought it would be a good idea to go into debt, directly linked to infrastructure projects, with a communist nation that has made its contempt of our country quite clear is staggering. But it is proof of just how sneaky China can be and how careful we must be.

Australia has been given a good taste of China’s vindictive might in the past few years – the same sort of might they could be inclined to use in a military sense.

Ever since we led the way in calling for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19, we have had a target on our backs. That ought to tell you everything you need to know both about how Covid originated and China’s tactics.

ADF members watch the HMAS Armidale sail into the Port of Honiara, Solomon Islands.

The resultant trade war on our wine, wheat and umpteen other products led Australian exports to China to plummet by $17.3bn in the first nine months of 2021.

As I have written previously in these pages, our Western allies increased their Chinese exports during that period – including the US by $6.3bn.

We have paid more than any of our allies for our fight against China on behalf of the West.

But they are waking up to the dangers of China’s rising influence in the Pacific.

US Senate foreign relations committee chairman Bob Menendez told Sky News this week that a deal between China and the Solomon Islands would lead to China becoming the country’s “owner and minder”.

“That’s what their ultimate goal is,” Senator Menendez said.

“And they have shown that in ­Africa and other parts of the world, where it seems they are coming in with good intentions, and then their coercive economic policies, their coercive practices, ultimately put you being owned by China.”

The Democrats and the Republicans in the US are on a unity ticket about this.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese this week acknowledged that China was a bigger threat to the world than climate change.

The government has increased its defence funding and Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned that “we shouldn’t underestimate China’s intent”.

But the reality is we’re not ready.

James Cook University senior lecturer Dr Anna Hayes on Wednesday said military bases in North Queensland – closest to the Solomon Islands – were aged and would not stand up to a conflict with China.

Our stand-off with China, she said, was akin to a new Cold War.

Standing behind Russian despot Vladimir Putin is President Xi Jinping. He is watching closely and will feel emboldened.

China has made its intentions on Taiwan clear. We have already seen what it has done to Hong Kong.

This should be front of mind when we head to the polls in five weeks. Australia could one day find itself in the firing line.

And we cannot afford to play catch up.