Admiral Samuel Paparo commands USINDOPACOM, home to over 300,000 sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines in an area of operations extending from the US west coast to India.
Paparo also has the clearest sense of the Chinese threat of any USINDOPACOM commander since Admiral Robert Willard, who was in charge from 2009-2012.
Yet, in some Pacific Island nations, he has less influence than the head of any Chinese-owned timber, fishing, mining or construction company.
How so? Paparo or another senior officer might show up for a day or two each year, if that, and meet with top officials, declaring their excellent friendship.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are “there” all the time, building relationships, conducting business (no matter how rapaciously and corruptly) and creating a pro-China constituency in the local political and business classes and throughout society.
And it’s greased by scholarships for family members, “study trips” to China, under-the-table cash payments and the like. Chinese consulates and embassies in the region are fully staffed and provide supporting fire, as does Chinese organized crime.
It’s all part of China’s systematic political warfare campaign throughout the Pacific – as strategically important a region as when the Japanese and Americans fought over it 80+ years ago.
Solomon Islands, where the decisive World War Two battle on Guadalcanal was fought, is an illustrative case. Over the years, the Chinese dug their claws into the place, spearheaded by logging and mining companies and other commercial ventures.
The grip tightened in 2019 when Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s Solomon Islands government shifted recognition from Taiwan to China. The decision was made in the shadows, without popular approval. A security agreement with China followed.
It’s never been made public, though a leaked draft reveals it lays the groundwork for People’s Liberation Army deployments. The Chinese police are already on the ground.
But sometimes one gets a second chance. An opposition coalition took office recently after a vote of no confidence against Sogavare’s successor, Prime Minister Jerehmiah Manele.
The new government, led by Matthew Wale, includes members who have been skeptical of the China deal and are patriots opposed to foreign domination.
They are also people of faith, proponents of consensual government and not tainted with the thoroughgoing corruption that characterized recent administrations. But the new administration has to produce for its citizens, even as the Chinese and their proxies are already targeting them.
The US needs to get directly involved and show there is a benefit to taking a principled stand against Chinese influence and creeping domination. And the Americans – and Paparo – should recall the old adage: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
The US “outsourced” the Solomons to the Australians for decades, bowing to Canberra’s prickly insistence that America stay out of Australia’s “patch.”
This was a mistake. The Australian Embassy in Honiara can cite a long list of projects it has backed. Many of them are indeed improving lives. But ultimately, it’s been a strategic failure if measured by the standard of blocking Chinese inroads and building an attractive alternative to Chinese cash.
Canberra sometimes even seemed to abet the Sogavare government’s getting into bed with China and never effectively challenged PRC inroads, or went after official corruption.
Here are a couple of ideas for the US to undertake that would make a big difference – and that Admiral Paparo could put on his “get done” list.
First, remember that if you want to influence a country, improve people’s lives and alleviate their suffering. The National Referral Hospital in Honiara is in especially bad shape, with deteriorating facilities and shortages of everything.
One could be puzzled, then, that Australia provided a multi-million-dollar “water park” for the Solomon Islands before the Pacific Games in 2023 and later offered $190 million for the country’s police force, but never did much for the nation’s main hospital or provincial clinics, which were short on food for patients.
So the US – and USINDOPACOM – might take the lead in making the National Referral Hospital a modern, properly staffed, equipped and functioning medical facility. Make it a collaborative effort with Japan, India, the Philippines and Australia. Even Taiwan might pitch in.
As one idea among many, set up a scheme to allow new US medical school graduates to serve for a few years and write off their sizable medical school loans. And also improve medical services in the provinces of the Solomon Islands.
As it often does, Japan is quietly showing what’s doable, upgrading the main hospital in Malaita, the Solomon Islands’ most populated island.
The US is already helping with a new hospital in Palau, being done with America’s strategic interests in mind. So why not in the Solomon Islands too?
The next thing Paparo and USINDOPACOM can focus on: Help honest Solomon islanders go after the corruption that is often the “grease” that makes Chinese subversion so effective.
Corruption, often with a China angle and often at the highest levels, is widely reported on by brave local reporters at In Depth Solomons – a shoestring operation that ironically received funding from the US State Department. This was money well spent.
The Australians did nothing of note, even though corrupt funds reportedly moved into Australian real estate and bank accounts. The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) was either incompetent or it aided and abetted, thinking it gave Australia “control” over Solomon’s officials.
It didn’t – but it did allow corrupt politicians to flourish while demoralizing honest Solomon Islanders. Australia may have underperformed, but the US government hasn’t exactly excelled either.
When Daniel Suidani, former premier of Malaita Province, tried to visit America to warn of the China threat – after being removed from office by Chinese proxies – the State Department would not issue him a visa until Congress intervened.
When State officials met with him, it was in a de facto dark-broom-closet meeting room with no water offered. The senior State officials even said some things that, according to one participant in the meeting, were untrue.
Suidani died last year, likely owing to the stress of the lawfare and harassment he suffered from China’s local proxies and the lack of support from the US and Australia.
The US needs to recognize the current, potentially short-lived opportunity in the Solomon Islands and act.
Look to Palau and the fine work done by the former US ambassador Joel Ehrendreich, who marshaled US government resources to roll back Chinese influence and support “pro-freedom” Palauans.
Give some oxygen to Solomon Islanders trying to defend freedom, and they’ll do the job. Paparo might, of course, reasonably say, “It’s the State Department’s job.”
It probably is. But if they won’t do much, Paparo should turn his own staff loose on it. And with some effort, he might find that the commander of USINDOPACOM has more influence than the local Chinese timber company guy.
