Ex-Solomon Islands’ Malaita province Premier Daniel Suidani (center left), his advisor (center right), Bloc Quebecois MP Yves-Francois Blanchet (left) and book publisher Dean Baxendale (right) pose together for a photo.
Photo credit: Dean Baxendale/Twitter

Written by: Aidan Jonah

Former Premier of the Solomon Islands' Malaita province, Daniel Suidani, was in Ottawa just a week ago, with wild tales of Chinese interference.

What the CBC conveniently failed to note is that under the former leadership of Suidani and his predecessors in the Solomon Islands’ Malaita province, they openly took money from the US government and Taiwan province government starting in 2001. Suidani’s administration led a separatist campaign for independence (even operating its own foreign policy, illegal for a province to do) between 2019 to his ouster in February 2023.

Taiwan province and the US’ desire for control of Solomon Islands

Sudiani began serving as Malaita province’s leader in June 2019. Solomon Islands’ central government, led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, dropped its recognition of Taiwan province in September 2019, shifting diplomatic recognition to mainland China.

An ABC article says “The two leaders signed several agreements, including one about cooperating with Mr Xi’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, and others on economic and education strategies.”

This aid stands in strong contrast to Taiwan province bribery of the past, and US government bribery to come in 2020.

Geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic explains: “instead of ‘aid’ money whose terms are deliberately ambiguous to facilitate political bribery, China is offering aid by directly developing the Solomon Islands’ economy with specific projects and transparent objectives.”

Taiwan province’s bribery is admitted even by Western MSM outlets including The Diplomat, where the Taiwan Export Import Bank (EXIM) had provided a $25 million USD loan in June 2001, supposedly “to foster peace by compensating the victims of the ethnic conflict that had ravaged the islands since 1998.”

But, The Diplomat admits that in reality: “while some of the money went to legitimate causes – displaced families and unpaid civil servants – the lion’s share ended up lining the pockets of politicians and militia leaders. Armed gangs held up government ministers for ‘compensation’ as Honiara descended into mob rule.”

The ethnic conflict, “that involved the separatist Malaita Eagle Force militia cost around 200 lives and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes,” lasted between 1999 and 2003.

During the same year the conflict ended, former Solomon Islands Presient Anote Tong switched from recognizing China (which it had since 1980) to recognizing Taiwan province.

When Solomon Islands’ government shifted diplomatic recognition to China in September 2019, Malaita Premier Suidani immediately opposed the move and began to push for independence, so Malaita could retain ties with Taiwan province.

Suidani’s US servitude is clear:

“Dispatched to the province in August last year, just prior to Sogavare’s confirmation of the diplomatic switch, members of the Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Trade, as well as embassy and aid personnel met with Daniel Suidani.”.. “Subsequently, Suidani boasted of American support and said he would invite the US and Australian governments to assist with ‘Malaitan security.’”

The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS)’s September 2020 article explained that building on Suidani’s publicly stated opposition:

“He [Suidani] organised pro-Taiwan demonstrations on the island and sought to whip up anti-Chinese sentiment through anti-communist and evangelical Christian, anti-atheist rhetoric. The Malaitan provincial administration has effectively sought to maintain its own foreign policy, coordinating aid and economic assistance from Taipei. Suidani also declared that no Chinese aid projects or economic investment would be permitted on Malaita, and no Chinese nationals would be allowed to visit.”

Suidani sought a pretext for calling an independence referendum:

“Suidani used as the pretext for the threatened independence referendum the national government’s authorisation of a flight on August 31 from Guangzhou, China to Solomon Islands. The Chinese-funded flight carried returning Solomon Islands’ citizens as well as Chinese aid workers sent to help construct facilities for the 2023 Pacific Games, and the first Chinese ambassador to the country, Li Ming. All passengers tested negative for COVID-19 three times before boarding the flight. Suidani nevertheless attempted to whip up a fear campaign over coronavirus infections. (Solomon Islands is one of the few countries to have avoided any positive cases.)”

On September 2, 2020, Malaita Premier Suidani announced plans for an independence referendum. The Solomon Islands’ central government soon said this planned referendum in Malaita and any provincial funds spent for it would be illegal, while confirming that the referendum results wouldn’t be recognized.

Already providing promises of further military and economic support to Malaita, bypassing the Solomon Islands’ central government, the US stepped up its efforts to turn Malaita into a puppet “independent” state soon after Suidani’s announcement. In a now deleted US State Department statement on October 1, 2020, they declared that “USAID is beginning a $25 million Strengthening Competitiveness, Agriculture, Livelihoods and Environment (SCALE) Program focusing on Malaita Province in Solomon Islands.”

Berletic said of this aid:

“The aid appears to have been offered directly to Malaita administrators, bypassing the nation’s central government – at a time when Malaita is pursuing separatism.”

The WSWS noted that this aid was “50 times more than the province receives annually from all other countries put together” and came with “the promise of additional American capital for infrastructure projects.”

The promised Malaita referendum didn’t happen in 2020, with Suidani backing off temporarily.

The extremist anti-China Malaita for Democracy (M4D) group had met with “a team from the International Republican Institute (IRI) based in Washington DC in Auki, Malaita Province” back in January 2020, according to the Solomon Star. Janata Weekly argued that “The true nature of the IRI-M4D meeting was to prepare the group to advocate for pro-Washington policies including continued support for the ROC in Taiwan versus the PRC in Beijing.”

They continued: “Just as Suidani was working with USAID to transform Malaita into a bastion of US interests, M4D was working with the US government via a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) subsidiary, the International Republican Institute (IRI) as early as 2020.”

By Fall 2020 the situation in Solomon had escalated, with Suidani being backed by “now proscribed Malaita for Democracy (M4D) outfit, which in September 2020 issued a pogromist threat to Chinese nationals in the province, giving them 24 hours to leave.”

By November 2020, Suidani’s independence push came to a head, leading to a coup attempt where on “November 24, around 1,000 of the Malaitan premier’s supporters [who travelled from Malaita] attempted to storm the parliament in the capital Honiara, and take Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare hostage. After riot police beat them back, the mob went on a three-day rampage, looting and burning dozens of buildings, including a police station, high school, and businesses owned by ethnic Chinese residents. Three people were killed in the destruction.”

The Australian government demonstrated malice by taking its sweet time to honour its security agreement with the Solomon Islands, and assist with defeating the coup attempt.

A no-confidence vote against Solomon Islands Premier Sogavare came on December 5, 2021, but failed by a wide margin, while opposition leaders retaliated by claiming that central government members were bribed by China. On December 8, 2021, Malaita Premier Suidani again stated plans to hold an independence referendum. The US was predictably angry with the failed no-confidence vote, with “US ambassador to Solomon Islands Erin McKee” issuing “a provocative statement on December 10 insinuating that the government was corrupt and urging people to ‘choose’ the US over China”, while backing opposition claims of Chinese bribery.

The failed coup continued to have ramifications, with the Solomon Islands creating a security pact with China by March 2022, which Berletic explained allowed the nation to request “Chinese police and military personnel to ‘assist in maintaining social order, protecting people’s lives and property, providing humanitarian assistance, carrying out disaster response, or providing assistance on other tasks’”.

WSWS explained that “the Biden administration” threatened “to stage a military intervention in the event that a Chinese military base was opened in the small, strategic Pacific country.”

The Malaitan separatists campaign was crushed for good, when a no-confidence motion in Malaita province’s assembly ousted former premier Suidani from power in February 2023. An Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute, claimed that there was ‘speculation’ that China gave its financial backing to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Sogavare who then financed motions against Suidani. This came with no evidence.

In March 2023, Suidani was disqualified from sitting in Malaita’s provincial assembly by the Solomon Islands’ central government.

Media outlet RNZ explained that “According to the SIBC [Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation], the first reason was his ongoing refusal to recognise the One China Policy, while the second accused Suidani of colluding with Taiwan in defiance of the sovereign decision of the national government to recognise the One China Policy.”

Minister for Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening, Rollen Seleso noted that "An executive of a provincial assembly is an agent of the national government and the provincial government is included in the concept of the crown and therefore must always abide by the decisions of the national government,".

Suidani failed in his US-supported separatist bid, with Malaita secessionists wild claims of Chinese government puppetry failing to convince even the people of Malaita. Yet these wild claims would come to Canada only a few months later.

Suidani in Ottawa

While in Ottawa, Suidani sat down with CBC News for an interview, where he claimed that Chinese diplomats had repeatedly attempted to bribe him beginning in 2019. The most important element, following in the trend of allegations made against the Solomon Islands’ central government and China’s actions in the country, came without evidence.

To emphasize: “CBC News could not independently verify Suidani's account”. The article’s journalistic failures don’t end there. Supposed Chinese puppetry of the Solomon Islands’ central government is juxtaposed to the US’ use of the nation as a launch point for its land invasion of Japan during WWII. The inference is clear, ‘China could use this nation to stage an invasion of the US’.

Yet Suidani’s word was gold in Ottawa, amid the CSIS-driven Chinagate hysteria.

CBC News noted that: “Daniel Suidani and his adviser Celsus Talifilu met with a few MPs from different parties: a Liberal, a Conservative, and a Bloquiste.”

The Globe & Mail revealed that the main sponsors of Suidani’s trip are Dean Baxendale, publisher of Optimum Publishing International (OPI), and the China Democracy Fund, which Baxendale serves as chief executive officer of. OPI is aggressively anti-China and has been since it was revived in 2017. OPI published Sam Cooper’s CSIS/CIA/FBI/DEA-press-release, Wilful Blindness, which Steve Lalla exposed as a series of ludicrous rationalizations of capitalism’s failures and its impacts in Canada. Baxendale proudly states his history of with imperialist organizations including “Hong Kong Watch, IPAC, the MacDonald-Laurier Institute and others” on ‘human rights conferences’ and “other China-related initiatives”.

Suidani’s trip clearly assists the Chinagate hysteria, where CSIS has taken control of the Canadian government via information operations, as MPs across the political spectrum of parliament uncritically push CSIS’ claims as the truth and advance its aims, pushing the Chinagate hysteria within parliament, attempting to punish the slightest deviation from the hysteria of supposed Chinese government interference in Canadian elections and a CSIS desired public inquiry on this front; all this leading to CSIS gaining more power.

Suidani conveniently calls for a more bold Canadian presence in the so-called ‘Indo-Pacific’/Asia-Pacific, when Canada had recently published its Indo-Pacific Strategy where it committed to a more aggressive foreign policy against China.

The timing of Suidani’s visit is very convenient, since MPs have already been primed to believe all hysterical allegations against China. While Suidani gripes about unproven Chinese puppetry, he continues assisting the same US government which brought important government officials to meet him in August 2019 after becoming Malaita province’s premier, pumped the province full of US funds only weeks after he announced an independence referendum, and called the elected Solomon Islands’ central government corrupt after both a Malaitan province-led coup attempt and federal opposition no-confidence motion failed within three weeks. Having failed in his US-blessed secessionist campaign against the Solomon Islands’ central government, Suidani was put to use by the US on the Canadian front.

This US agent’s spreading of unproven allegations against China to Canadian MPs, unconfirmable even by the Canadian MSM, is another case of US foreign interference in Canadian politics, which is by far the greatest threat to people in this nation.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
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Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi "journalist" Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the "Uyghur genocide" vote in parliament to pass this February. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

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