[Music] thank you Colin bangera is an extinct volcano on the western Fringe of the Solomon Islands its peak Rises almost 1800 meters into the clouds it's beautiful and remote the area is famous for hardwood timber diving and highly productive fishing grounds it also has a deep water Harbor and an airstrip assets China is coveting in its expansion across the Pacific and on four corners we reveal how China is seeking to buy this strategically important Island in an effort to cement its growing pos
ition across the Solomons and we expose how Chinese money is being used by prime minister manessa sogavare to maintain power in this volatile country of Australia's Northeastern Coast [Laughter] [Music] this is world-class Plantation we're actually operating without using any chemical at all in our plantations we also protect our environment just to making sure our Birds our creatures everything out there Works alive oversees the forestry operations on Colin bungara and says it's the only Loggin
g Company in the Solomons certified internationally for its sustainable practices and to actually have a company working on my Island on Solomon Islands is great stuff and I would suggest if any government of the day could actually replicate what we are doing that would make someone Islands economically strong in a forestry sector [Music] [Music] Edwin Shram is the general manager of the plantation how many people do you employ here so we have 200 permanent employees across the various departmen
ts being in the Human Resources research Nursery forestry and so on and then we have between 1 200 to 2000 independent contractors agriculture contractors and harvesting contractors so we Harvest about a hundred thousand cubic meters a year [Music] here we have the clinic on the right it's a medical clinic yep local so staff and people on the island living here can attend the clinic in here we have the primary secondary school on the right hand side and you guys run this as well we house the tea
chers who teach the children so we have up to 300 children around the year but to school every day [Music] the plantation is owned by private Taiwanese and Australian shareholders in conjunction with the Solomon Islands government border closures due to covid-19 have left the company vulnerable they haven't exported any logs in 15 months with a deep water Port protected Harbor and World War II airstrip the plantation has attracted attention from its largest customer China [Music] how good is thi
s port here and tell us about it it's exceptionally deep you probably find that it's up to 40 50 meters deep as you approach The Wharf the wolf itself the depth alongside the wharf is 20 meters which is quite remarkable given that it's a natural deep water Port so it's a really really well suited natural port for big vessels to come in and birth [Music] foreign ERS can reveal China forestry group a state-owned Enterprise is in talks to buy the plantation that would give it control over fourteen
thousand hectares of hardwood forests and the Island's key infrastructure a Chinese delegation visited colombunga to inspect the island and pointedly asked how Deep's the water and how long is The Wharf we're told they paid almost no attention to the trees so I think this Plantation kpl is is one of the unique plantations that we have around not only the Pacific but maybe the world as much as possible we want to keep it that way because we want to keep it for for our children our children's chil
dren and you know the future generation readily Vago leads a group of traditional landowners who work closely with the plantation our worry would be to have a company that is here and they just wipe out all the Investments and all these plantations that would be our worry do Chinese forestry companies have a good reputation in the Solar lands they are not uh doing they are doing more harm to our forests than good so I wouldn't say that about the Chinese companies have a reputation for bringing i
n their own labor is that one of your concerns I think that's one of our main concerns because uh overall we have always had our local libraries are coming in local people coming in to contribute into the labor force of this company and for us to see how people being sidelined in this way is going to be devastating and it's going to be morally wrong I think as a deal to sell the columbangara plantation moved ahead members of the board wrote to the Australian government about the risk and strateg
ic threats posed by any sale the letter urged camera to step in and buy the plantation to boost ties with Solomon Islands and prevent China taking control of the port an airstrip and establishing a base foreign minister Penny Wong's office told Four Corners Australia is continuing to engage with the plantation owners not ruling out an intervention thank you [Music] Solomon Island sits across key sea lines of communication and also across keying undersea cables as well so for those reasons there
is deep concern in Australia that any kind of foreign force in Solomons would present a direct security threat to Australia Dr Anna poles knows the Solomons intimately as a Pacific security expert she has closely followed China's push into the region they were building a whole series of demountables she says China's commercial facilities could be used in the future to house military assets how do you view Chinese commercial interests with beijing's broader strategic interest how do those two fit
together we do know that Chinese companies are often the Vanguard of Beijing State interests in countries and regions and so in the case of Solomon Islands certainly the Chinese commercial network is incredibly useful for Beijing in its pursuit of its strategic interests in in Solomon Islands and in the region more broadly [Music] foreign [Music] sits at the heart of Western Province a resource-rich part of the Solomons [Music] what can I say it's in terms of Tourism is probably one of the best
place to go I always say that you know if you want to come over to the following you're not doing Solomons until you visit the West Blue Ocean reefs um good fishing and a lot of good seafood [Music] it has some involvement Silas Tau singer has been an MP in the tourist destination of Munda for 12 years during that time he's become worried about the increasing Chinese interest in his electorate it is concerning one of my biggest concerns is how much it says the spillover effects of that through
the local people how much employment is going to go back to the locals I've heard stories I've from from friends and you know some of my relatives that are from Guadalcanal that a lot of the workers now coming from from China even the basic truck drivers um let's give it operators [Music] the Chinese are not hiding their ambition in the country's West Ambassador Lee Ming recently handed over fishing boats engines and eskies to locals on Monroeville Island accompanied by this pledge China will co
ntinue to support Western province China will continue to support Solomon Islands [Music] I'm concerned about China leaving the West because I'm looking at the infrastructures we have in the west you know if they start having a foothold in there if we are unable to pay back debates you know as a waste as a province what do we have in terms of resources they would want so they'll be able to repay those debts that we have it's not only in the west I think generally as a whole country you know it's
it's quite um quite worrying [Music] in Munda a Chinese company is resurfacing the runway at the airport and building a new international terminal not that they were Keen for us to film it this is another public yes this is a private building but we're just filming from a public road we're allowed to do that no no sorry says who uh if you photo here this is my logo my company logo and what's wrong with photographing that are you not allow that I say again who says we're not allowed okay accordi
ng to who we're not allowed okay I will say again no not allowed I say again not allowed okay okay no download okay okay okay okay we'll stop filming we'll stop filming it's fine it's fine okay okay okay okay okay don't don't touch the camera don't touch the camera [Music] in the capital honiara China's presence is impossible to ignore just coming past the Chinese Embassy now and as you can see it Towers over everything else out towards the airport is a stadium China's building for next year's P
acific games which features a giant billboard trumpeting beijing's contribution here on the street you even see garbage trucks driving around which feature China raid logos on their side [Music] China is pushing to the Solomons is only possible after prime minister Manassas sogavare decided to switch the country's diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in September 2019. he was criticized for not Consulting widely before making the move creating resentment across the country Taiwan has be
en with us for a long time it built the hospital and a number of assistance to all the communities so they have a DS or relationship with them it's meant that under the way that they were sent off not even thank you not foreign as opposition to the China switch grew in the second half of last year the Prime Minister was scrambling to keep his government together a vote of no confidence was looming in Parliament honorable prime minister please thank you Mr speaker now Four Corners can reveal the
full details of how a Chinese slush fund kept sogavare in power it paid MPS who supported the prime minister I've obtained a document here I want to show it to you can you give us your impressions of this okay this document was actually a document the funding that were approved for the members um and ministers back benches and ministers from the government I think there was in August there was a proof or we're going to receive 200 000 each so members of the song of Ras government yeah at the tim
e Silas Tau singer was part of the sogavare government and so his name was on a list of MPS who received the money around 34 000 Australian dollars each money coming directly from the Chinese Embassy in honiara so you're saying that the Member of Parliament can actually use this money for whatever they like they're like yeah yes it's upon the discretion it's you know if they say school fees if there's a buy build a school or whatever with it it doesn't matter they have a direct discussion what t
hey do with it the Prime Minister failed to respond to this allegation away from Parliament anger over sogavare's leadership grew in part due to the switch to China three months later riots erupted on the streets of the capital Ruth Lila cooler a former cabinet secretary who now runs the Solomon Islands arm of Transparency International watched the unrest from her balcony so what could you see from your balcony here just stick smoke going everywhere and people running from everywhere as soon as
the buildings caught fire what sort of things were they taking they were taking food they were taking sensors they were taking um TVs whatever else they can get into their own on ants they and generators all the power tools this is what they were taking with them then there's a small group of people and they touch the buildings and when Island Enterprise went up in Flames because it's got gases and all of that it's like a war zone with things exploding everywhere so it was scary tell us how it m
ade you feel having your community burn it it broke my heart Ruth lilacula said it could have all been avoided if the Prime Minister had met with protesters [Applause] [Music] in August September and he just said no no no so it would not have averted the writing and the Looting if he had met with them the first time that they wanted to be listened to we would not have ended up where we are the rioters targeted chinese-owned businesses in December still fearing for the survival of his government
sogavare again activated the Chinese slush fund this time loyal MPS received 44 000 Australian dollars each and the Prime Minister survived a no confidence motion this is the um we've always copy that was paid out after the regular confidence has obviously seen my name was crossed out why was your name crossed out oh yeah because I lived together I crossed over I'd resigned from them and then walked over and joined your position so you didn't get any money no no I knew there was going to get I w
as going to get it but it wasn't the reason I was going to stay for the money do you think this money helps the Prime Minister stay in power well which stadium power hasn't he yeah so I think he does are later obtained by Four Corners shows the first payment schedule was signed by the Prime Minister and said the Chinese Embassy had been consulted on this additional support and consented to the money being released in the end nearly 3 million Australian dollars provided by China was paid to gover
nment MPS [Music] this is corruption because all this money none of it anybody is benefiting for these are personal benefits to these listed members of parliament in this list we showed the same list to Ruth Lila cooler from Transparency International and this tells me that China is keeping this government together [Music] Four Corners emailed detailed questions about these allegations to the prime minister's office and followed up with phone calls and texts we received no response the riots for
ced prime minister sogavare to turn to Canberra for help within 24 hours Australian boots were on the ground they remain in the country today prime minister was obviously deeply concerned about November riots because he was very much the target of those and the deep-seated frustration felt by many in Solomon Islands about poor inequitable and unfair development in Solomon Islands China also offered to help and later send in riot gear and police trainers a clear upgrade of its relationship with h
oniara then in March this year a draft security pact which no one had anticipated was made public a number of these islands and a polls was one of the first people to reveal its contents and raise concerns it could lead to a Chinese military presence in the Solomons I received it from a concerned individual in Solomon Islands and was initially you know at that time it hadn't actually been verified uh but it was certainly concerning uh to to read and and I was certainly concerned about the ambiti
ous nature of it and the ambiguous nature of it as well what would any Chinese military presence potentially look like in the Solomons certainly the security deal made reference to the provision of logistical support and material assets in Solomon Islands to support Naval Chinese naval ship visits to Solomon Islands and that of course raised concerns about the potential for a base there are concerns that this agreement would allow for Chinese police and military personnel to be deployed in order
to maintain social order or in response to a some type of humanitarian Assistance or to protect Chinese infrastructure the Solomon Islands be one of your first the signing of the secure Duty deal dominated the early weeks of the Australian election campaign it may be a surprise to the labor party but it's not a surprise to us and what I would say is this this represents the worst failure for Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since the end of World War II by July at a meeting in Fiji soga
vare assured the new Australian prime minister Anthony albanesi that Beijing won't be allowed to establish a military base in the Solomons welcome how are you very well but despite a friendly meeting not everyone is convinced do you think China does want to establish a military base in the Solomon Islands I think they would want to you know strategically given the expense and doing that the Pacific I think I think they would want to but given that the international media into pressure from the s
olomonized people themselves would uh putting pressure on the government so that they are trying to avoid it at the moment you know but I hope God I hope they don't [Music] beijing's intentions were revealed in a recently leaked letter from a Chinese defense contractor written in 2020 it showed Chinese state-owned corporations attempting to lease land in Isabel Province to develop Naval and infrastructure projects for the people's Liberation Army Navy there's been a lot of talk in Australia abou
t China establishing a military base in the Solomon Islands do you think Australia should be worried by that absolutely you know absolutely should be worried about it Solomon is a country that has no military background who are we trying to protect ourselves from historically we don't have a military you know and then do you suggest that we should have another country coming in here to to do as a security partner to to even suggest the idea of having to build a military base what are we building
with military base for um I'm not four but against who are enemies Manassas sogavare has come to dominate Solomon Islands politics over the last 25 years he is a deeply religious combative politician who has been prime minister four times he's the most significant prime minister of his generation he will be remembered as a very significant figure and most recently his dealings with China I think have made him a far more significant Pacific leader than he ever was when he first started a controv
ersial figure yes he is he is he is controversial because he takes no prisoners along the way is not a typical seven-day Adventist neither is he a typical Solomon Islander there are certain things about the way that he behaves particularly he's yelling in Parliament which certainly would not be acceptable for a customer leader of any Solomon Island Society you knew sogavari as a young man what was your impression of him yes as a young man my impression of him is that there is a potential leader
of the country and it would make a very good politician understanding as a lot of very good ideas about how to develop Solomon Islands and all of this and I also encourage him to stand and all of this because I'm I'm old so I do this kind of things how do you think he is now as a leader uh now as a leader we don't recognize him anymore sogavare's complicated relationship with Canberra dates back to Australia's leadership of the regional assistance mission to Solomon Islands known as Ramsey betwe
en 2003 and 2017. Nicholas Coppell headed the mission for three years Ramsay was deployed because Solomon Islands had fallen into a state of lawlessness it was approaching a failed state but it was invited in by the government of Solomon Islands with uh the backing of of the parliament of Solomon's through the Pacific Islands forum and uh it came in initially with a very clear mandate to restore Law and Order but also to rebuild the finances of the country and rebuild a lot of the government ins
titutions which had been effectively run down or destroyed During the period of attentions it's been highly critical of Ramsay in the past are you still critical often or having a foreign military and bureaucratic presence sat uncomfortably with sogavare when uh you know Ramsay came in they agreed they addressed a lot of things but there are a lot of issues that are still here to be addressed and that is the underlying issues that cause this country to collapse in us with us he's a great nationa
list and he really felt that in allowing Ramsay in the Solomon Parliament would be losing its role and he was very worried about that and because Australia always financed and provided the coordinators for Ramsey it was very much an Australian operation so he was suspicious of that he doesn't have any strong Australian connections like going to school or doing a University degree or something like that so he doesn't have that background with Australia it was an Australian federal police raid on
its prime ministerial office which tipped the relationship over the edge the row between the Solomons and Australia is set to deepen the rate on prime minister sogavari's office took place in 2006 it was in pursuit of a case against the Attorney General of Solomon arms at the time a man by the name of Julian motty there were some historical allegations or charges against him and the Australian federal police were Keen to to get evidence which would lead to his conviction although there was a war
rant the way the search was conducted has infuriated the government it involved Australian police breaking into the office of the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands to retrieve a fax machine which they believe would contain evidence which would be useful in their inquiries and the prime minister of Solomon Islands took a particular outrage at this do you think that was a mistake with the benefit of hindsight I think it's um as I say was a disproportionate response and and an unnecessary risk it's
a humiliation for a prime minister to have his office raided by representatives of a foreign police force and sogavari I think did have his views colored by by Ramsey generally because it was an erosion of nationalism [Music] thank you on National Day in the Solomon Islands the Prime Minister called for Unity in challenging times the responding positively in my invitation to this Thanksgiving service Bohemia marking 44th anniversary of our independence watching on was China's Ambassador Lee Min
g seated next to Australia's High Commissioner Lachlan Strawn but that is the nature of relationship as we heard sogavare finished with a pointed acknowledgment Republic of China who have already demonstrated their genuine intention to be worthy partner in the development of our country in less than three years of our relationship and I thank all of you I thank all of you on behalf of a grateful country and people [Applause] [Music] thank you the Prime Minister refused our repeated requests for
an interview but we were promised he'd answer a few questions before he left prime minister Angus Greek from Four Corners have you got time for a quick chat your presec just said you were happy to have a chat can you give us a quick chat now family is your thanks of China a rebuke of Australia prime minister [Music] later told by the prime minister's staff that he sees the issue of China's presence in the Solomons as water under the bridge there was a key question I wanted to put to sogavare we'
ve discovered there are question marks over the prime minister's personal finances Four Corners understands ANZ here in honiara encouraged Mr sogavare to take his business elsewhere following unexplained funds moving through his bank account the Solomon Islands is still the second poorest country in the Pacific after four stinters prime minister sogavare has failed to meet the needs of his people there are times when you go to the central hospital you have to buy gloves for them to deal with sic
k patient to your relatives I've had to buy plasters because they don't have it you have to buy Supply and get it there because it does not exist in the hospital the times that one there is no Panadol my cousin walked in there he rang me up and he walked in there at 12 o'clock he had to wait because there's only one Nest there until three o'clock before they deal with him by 10 o'clock who took him out in a copy that's just how bad it is in that hospital because the government neglected why do t
he politicians tolerate having a hospital so bad Solomon Island politicians don't get attended to inside the country they go overseas for their medical need Checkers or whatever else they need them and their families one industry which could deliver some much needed revenue for better government services is logging hey George I met with a former Central Bank official who told me why this isn't happening so you've been looking into the logging industry have you yeah I do um George kasui was a sen
ior bureaucrat who previously ran the Commerce Department in honiara he's investigated the huge underpayment of royalties by the logging industry and estimates the shortfall at around half a billion Australian dollars since 2009. do you think politicians are getting some of this money some of it's coming back to the politicians there's nowhere that you could get money from anyone except from the logos they have the money they they have already pocket to give anyone anything and even if you ask a
ny Solomon Island there's only Lucas got money so most of the money which the government the corrupt officials of the government access from the logos the underpayment results from the government setting the price of logs from which royalties must be paid but this price is well below what the logs are actually sold for On the World Market these your lost royalties the Solomon Islands Central Bank auditor general and IMF have warned about this lost revenue for decades is what you're saying that t
he loggers pay some of this difference to the politicians and that's a way for them to get money well I think that the amount of money that this lost and the amount of money that this moving around within and in the lightning industry is a bit substantial therefore they have a lot of money at the disposal to do anything and who owns these logging companies um most of them through Malaysians but most of them are Chinese companies a few others recent ones they come as mining companies or logos and
then they actually got mining mining licenses as well from nowhere so they are the ones who actually involved in the logging industry as well mostly Chinese do you think the logging industry is good for Solomon Islands no it is not at all good for Solomon Islands because it does not bring back it what it left is devastated environment but more than that that it destroys the social public of every Community brothers are fitting against Brothers communities are no longer talking to each other oh
they're pretty much all in the country the ministry of Forestry is pretty much the bread and butter people do like this that every time a ministers he stands up to the long companies the minister automatically gets removed by the commissioner because the Logging Company pretty much owes that went to University George kasui now an advisor to the opposition says plantations like the one we visited on Colin bungara are a better model for the Solomons I think kolobanger is a bit different from what
the logging industry here in the Solomons is doing called bangar to me and they operated on a sort of like a sustainable sort of uh forestry and forestration where they cut trees and they have to replant it as well so that's what is happening there businessman Peter Lewis understands how money politics and China have converged in the Solomons that's where this block he was forced to walk away from a lucrative bauxite mine in tomotu Province after the license was unexpectedly canceled by the mine
s Minister we'd spend a lot of money I think to the tune of about eight million dollars digging holes and getting lab tests and setting up programs for mining so we'd spend a lot of time and money the matter ended up in the local courts what do you think was happening in the background I think that the minister and the powers that be spurred on by the Chinese who wanted to get their hands on our deposit the judges were being told mess this around stall it which they did very effectively two year
s later in 200 Grand Aussie we finally got to the appeals court which is three foreign judges who in the matter of five minutes completely dismissed his arguments so we won hands down problem was they then referred it back to the mines Department to reconsider our application which and that's when we threw it oh well you know it's going to happen all over again you can guarantee it so we decided then to shut it down and walk away did you ever get a sense that the Chinese were operating in the ba
ckground more than that I've actually cited the minutes of the mines I think it's called The Mines Council and they are the ultimate body in the mines area and when our matter came up I was showing the minutes and there it was in black and white one of the members said I thought we'd already given this 2x the Chinese company in the minutes of the minds Council [Music] another industry China is trying to control is Telecommunications it's pushing to build around 160 mobile phone towers across the
Solomons Chinese Tech Giant Huawei would Supply the equipment funded in part by a loan of 55 million US dollars from Beijing experts worry it will leave the country vulnerable I've just received a report written by consulting firm KPMG which says the financial Returns on the Huawei proposal have been significantly overstated and the three-year construction period is unrealistic now experts we've spoken to say the country doesn't need that many Towers they fear it will be unable to repay the deb
t and some even worry it could bankrupt Solomon Telecom it concerns me because it is in whose interest is that really the infrastructure that Solomon Island needs that's the question and oh is it being built for is it built for a Solomon Islands or is it built for China's interest would make poorer and poorer by having to pay back these things that they are taking on huawei's presence has stoked security concerns after it was banned from rolling out new networks in the U.S and Australia Canberra
has agreed to fund six towers across some of the most remote parts of the Solomons [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you Thomas Linton good afternoon to you and good afternoon me where I will stop listening all this for a Sunday afternoon you're with an sibc the voice of the nation okay good afternoon once again good listeners wherever you listen come lamb Lord this is a beautiful Sunday afternoon Ruth lilacula is working with a group of young people raising awareness about corruption and govern
ment secrecy no we're talking about security the focus of today's radio program is the security pact with China under Article 5 where him talk about him confidentiality young people are fast becoming an influential Block in the Solomons this is where the next generation of leaders will come from this is why Youth Empowerment is important these same mutes that burned down the city are the same users that can help rebuild our city are the same youths that can build our city build our country so as
Leaders the young people that I come to interact with through my work keeps me off because they want to do something they want to speak up so giving them Avenue to do that is kind of my commitment so that they can map out a better future for themselves all right there are deep fears about where this relationship with China could lead and what it means for future Generations my hopes for the future is us to be positive because I live here God did not give me any other place this is the country i
t gave me so I have to be positive from Washington who have become a Banana Republic pretty much do you think the Solomon Islands is a failed State we're pretty much heading in that direction giving the amount of foreign forces that was in the country you can almost suggest that we are pretty much on the road to a field state you know what does the future look like for you and for this country I still have hope was a young politician I still believe that we can turn things around and build a bet
ter solomonas and what we already experienced in the last 20 years [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]
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