Posted on 10/21/2019 7:44:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Solomon Islands in the South Pacific are a militarily crucial location for any Pacific power interested in threatening the continent of Australia. That's why the fighting at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomons, was so fierce during World War II. At that time, the expansionary Pacific power was Japan, while today it is China, but the strategic value of the Solomons remains the same.
That's why alarm bells are going off in Canberra over this news, coming from Andrew Tillett of the Australian Financial Review (paywalled):
Revelations a Chinese company linked to a state-owned enterprise is trying to lease an entire island in the Solomon Islands for up to 75 years has sparked fresh alarm that it could pave the way for Beijing to establish a Pacific military base on a strategic gateway to Australia.
The island's Central Province government last month signed an investment agreement with the China Sam Enterprise Group to develop the island of Tulagi and neighbouring islands as a special economic zone.
The agreement reportedly makes provisions for the development of an oil and gas terminal, fishery base and upgrade of the airport.
The agreement is not a done deal, however. According to local officials:
Faced with a local backlash over the lease, Central Province premier Stanley Manetiva told Radio New Zealand the agreement was non-binding.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Going to plant a nice big naval base there. I’d be worried too.
The new “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”
Na, the Chinese Communist Party plans to strip the Island to the waterline ,LOL
Guadalcanal II.
Since Oz has gone lefty the Chicoms can have em.
Why lease an island if they can just build their own?
This is no big deal!
Just because thousands of Americans fought and died for these islands means nothing!
What’s important is that we support our great trading “partner” - the Communist Tyrannocracy known as “the People’s Republic” - in their quest for world domination!
Cuz it’ll help Wall St! And that’s all that matters! Right up to the day the PLA storms the gates of Lower Manhattan!
/rant off
Don’t worry Australia, New Zealand’s Navy got your back /s
On another note - If Japan would have just “leased” some of the Island in the South Pacific they could have avoided that big nasty war. also /s
Just get New Zealand’s navy to love them to death.
Perhaps that are going to build a new NBA practice facility there.
I expect this island to militarized in no time, like the Spratleys and this time the airport will be expanded to accommodate military aircraft.
America is being totally deceived and misdirected by the left to keep dithering in the Mideast as China is making its move in the Pacific.
Lt JG John F Kennedy took command of PT-109 on Tulagi on April 23, 1943. They moved to the Russell Islands on May 30, 1943 in preparation for the invasion of New Georgia.
I wonder how the Marines that fought there would respond if you told them a bunch of Ivy League mba pig-f*ckers would be selling those islands to the Chinese in exchange for cheap plastic trinkets.
So did the Australians.
When my father went into Luzon on the third day of the invasion he had to step on the dead bodies of both Australian and US Marines covering the beach. He was in the US Army Air Corps.
After more than a year of fighting on the bigger island, Henderson Field, the target of the initial invasion which had been started by the Japanese, had grown to the point that it dwarfed anything available on Tulagi.
And thus, the colonial capital (and eventual capital of the Solomons) was moved to Guadalcanal not long after hostilities had ended.
Incidentally, the much smaller size of Tulagi also meant that ocean breezes could reach all parts of the island, making it more resistant to tropical diseases and a more appropriate location for the colonial capital in the beginning.
And at the end of the 75 years, they will NOT turn it over, as the Brits did with Hong Kong.
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