Had news of the 2022 signing of a defence pact between the Solomon Islands and Beijing not been leaked, there would now be Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops on the streets of Honiara, off the coast of Australia, says one security analyst.
Former Australian Federal Police officer Paul Johnstone only recently returned from the Solomon’s capital Honiara, where he says locals—unlike the political class—are unsettled by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) presence in the island.
