The recent denial of a scheduled port call by a US Coast Guard vessel (see, "US Denied Solomons Port Call") has now expanded to a blanket moratorium on visits and port calls by US naval vessels.
The US government was notified by the Solomons on Monday of a “moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures,” … [1]
China signs a security pact with Solomons and suddenly the US is banned from port calls in the Solomons. It doesn’t take a genius to see the connection.
Chinese vessels, of course, are permitted by the recently signed security pact between Solomon Islands and China.
China has masterfully achieved a takeover of the Solomons and now calls the shots there. The Solomon Islands are now a vassal state of China. China will begin militarizing the islands in short order, no doubt.
China is conquering the Pacific without firing a shot while the US watches. If the US doesn't start engaging diplomatically, the Marines are going to have to set up their small missile-shooting units along the coast of California!
Rethinking it? Innocent miscommunication? Probably not...America no longer seems to be "the strong horse".
ReplyDeletehttps://solomons.gov.sb/pm-sogavare-clarifies-misinformation-on-us-coast-guard-vessel/
Miscommunication? No. That's called, after-the-fact spin. China wanted the US to understand who is calling the shots, now, and it's not the US !
DeleteAs ill of a portent as this business with the Solomons is, I'm less worried about them sensing that we're the "weak horse" and acting according than I am about our own plutocrats doing the same. Cf. Ray Dalio's comments over the past few years, and his recent book. Also look at how the NBA reacted when some players and coaches criticized the CCP. The Chinese have sold us the rope we're going to hang ourselves with.
ReplyDeleteWe are not only participating in our own demise ... we're often leading the way!
DeleteWell given that the Chinese government and Chinese companies are free to offer third world political leaders and public servants millions of dollars in bribes or ‘facilitation payments’, and we’re not, how do you suppose we’re going to win this one.
DeleteThe Solomon Islands fiasco is likely to be just the first cab of the rank.
"and we’re not"
DeleteOh come on. We do this all the time. Do you recall the pallets of cash ($1.7B) that we sent to Iran? Do you really think that all went straight to the people? We sent cargo planes of CIA cash to Afghanistan. Again, that didn't go to the people. We funnel cash to third world leaders all the time. We're just a bit more circumspect about it then the Chinese are.
That aside, we can offer all manner of aid. One of our main organizations for doing this is called US-AID (USAID, United States Agency for International Development), for goodness sakes!
We can offer grants, humanitarian assistance, construction assistance, military aid at giveaway prices, military training, economic assistance, etc. We have plenty of tools other than out and out bribes.
We just need to recognize and admit to ourselves that our esteemed trading partner, China is our sworn enemy and is doing their best to eliminate us and conquer the world.
The "pallets of cash" that went to Iran were their own money being returned after being seized. I have no opinion on the rest as I wasn't there, but I certainly was in Iran just prior to the revolution. Nice people, crappy regime ruling them.
DeleteYou have been vocal on Chinese "debt traps", but reality is that IMF and World Bank have been far worse, and are seen to be far worse by developing nations.
This is not helping our argument in the rest of world.
If we want to influence for the better, we need to help for the better. Its not really complicated, but we seem to be unable to grasp the concept and execute accordingly.
The Chinese are winning in the Philippines because they offer aid and funding that the US is unwilling to match or better. I have not dug into the details, but infrastructure is being built with repayable Chinese money that was not possible previously. And just about everyone I know is quite grateful for that. The new national North to South highway with tons of Wow bridges between the islands is only one example.
The US has to step up to compete. They aren't as of yet. The soft power war is a disaster. I see it on both sides, my wife is from the Philippines and I am Canadian living half my life overseas while being 8th generation military. I'm the black sheep Navy in an Army family. Gotta tell you its pretty discouraging wherever you look.
"The "pallets of cash" that went to Iran were their own money being returned after being seized."
DeleteFunny how Obama tried to keep that part from the public. And, the major provisions expired after 15 years. So, Obama's deal only kicked the can down the road for another president to deal with.
"We just need to recognize and admit to ourselves that our esteemed trading partner, China is our sworn enemy and is doing their best to eliminate us and conquer the world."
DeleteExactly. And every day that goes by without doing that, the situation just gets worse.
No, the examples you cite are a totally different thing altogether.
DeleteIf the President uses his executive authority to unfreeze Iranian assets, or fund the activities of some Afghan warlord through the CIA no crime is being committed, and there's no likely prospect of a successful civil challenge either.
But under the FCPA it is unequivocally a very serious criminal offense for any 'US person' to pay a bribe to a foreign government official to influence their conduct in public office. The legislation is drawn very broadly indeed, and there are no ifs or buts about it, nor is there any national interest or national security exemption.
Bear also in mind that the officials that you're seeking to influence in this way, are probably not looking to the good of their people, or for something dressed up as an aid package, from which they can cream a bit off the top at some point down the track. They're going to be looking for a substantial upfront cash payment into a secret bank account, with an assurance that when they're overthrown at the next election, or in a military coup, they'll be able to move to a comfortable place to enjoy quietly the fruits of the US taxpayers illicit generosity. No one wants to emulate Mahmoud Thiam, former Guinean Mining Minister, who took bribes, and was charged by the US DoJ with money laundering offenses, because he got paid off in US dollars.
Bear in mind also that it's very difficult to keep this sort of thing quiet, and the US media will like nothing more than to start looking into it.
On the commercial front the situation for e.g American mining companies looking to do business in these places, and facing tough competition from the Chinese, is even worse, as the Justice Dept. is very active in looking to prosecute wherever it can, and offers very generous whistleblower rewards to disgruntled employees who want to send their former bosses to jail.
What I'm saying here is that we are at a massive disadvantage in advancing our interests in the South Pacific (and in Africa too) vis-a-vis the Chinese, who can do exactly what they want to do, without caring in the least who they bribe or otherwise corrupt.
"pallets of cash"
DeleteThose of us who lived through that period understood exactly what the money was. It was a bribe to get Iran to release four hostages. The cash, which was frozen Iranian assets, had been used as leverage for many years and was finally paid as a bribe to free the hostages. No amount of rationalization changes that. The monetary assets could have been released at any point and the preceding decades but was frozen until needed, as a bribe, to free the hostages.
Here's a description of events: Hostage Bribe
Unrelated, but figured CNO would like this,
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/ryankakiuchan/status/1564636592312033282?s=21&t=MnSdtXy3hcL5iknNkkTI0g
-BSmitty
'China has masterfully achieved a takeover of the Solomons and now calls the shots there. The Solomon Islands are now a vassal state of China. China will begin militarizing the islands in short order, no doubt.'?
ReplyDeleteWe, along with Australia, condoned and sponsored a riot/coup in the Solomons, to punish Honiara for recognizing Beijing instead of Taiwan as the capital of China.
This is payback for our stupidity.
We desperately need to have a cohesive, consistent, and aggressive policy towards China.
ReplyDeleteBut we are busy fighting over pronouns, Mar-a-lago, election credibility, inflation, vaccine mandates, cash bail, etc, etc, etc.
Much of this turmoil is instigated by foreign influences....by design?
Regardless, we are in disarray and China is taking advantage.
Lutefisk
"Much of this turmoil is instigated by foreign influences."
DeleteNo, it's OUR OWN PEOPLE who instigated nonsense about "pronouns, Mar-a-lago, election credibility, inflation, vaccine mandates, cash bail, etc." It's OUR OWN PEOPLE who have to fix this mess.
We can't fix our problems if we seek scapegoats for what OUR OWN PEOPLE caused.
@Aim9snake
DeleteCan't argue with that.
Lutefisk