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Pacific nations
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Let the games begin: Solomon Islands hosts Pacific Games sports event mostly paid for by China

  • Solomon Islands’ PM Manasseh Sogavare has alarmed the West with his pro-Beijing engagement and increasingly authoritarian reflexes
  • Experts point to subtle shows of influence at the Games as increasingly divided Pacific nations align more with either the US and Australia or China

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Fans at the China-built 10,000-seater stadium for the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: Christopher Cottrell
Christopher Cottrellin Honiara, Solomon Islands
The Pacific Games opened in a new China-funded stadium in Solomon Islands to thunderous drumming and fireworks, in an event where the sport is a sideshow to many outsiders who are instead scrutinising the race between China and the United States for dominance over an archipelago that’s surrounded by strategic sea lanes.
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Five thousand athletes from 24 Pacific Islands are competing at the Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, from November 19 to December 2. Solomon Islands’ pro-China Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has heralded the US$250 million event as the defining achievement of his administration.

In recent years, he has emerged as the Pacific’s most divisive leader, courting controversy for his avowedly pro-Beijing stance and increasingly authoritarian reflexes.

The modern 10,000-seater sports arena, which was funded by China, is among the venues for the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: AFP
The modern 10,000-seater sports arena, which was funded by China, is among the venues for the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: AFP
In 2021, Sogavare, 68, a career politician from the northeastern island of Choiseul, announced plans to suspend the 2023 election to manage the Games, provoking violent anti-government riots that resulted in Honiara’s Chinatown being torched and Chinese police being deployed at the request of Sogavare’s government.

At stake, experts say, is a return to a democratic election timeline slated for April 2024 as well as the increasing influence of Beijing, which critics fear could back Sogavare’s administration even if it tipped into a full-on authoritarian government. Or worse: reignite the civil war that embroiled this country 20 years ago.

“The Games are not merely a sporting event, they are a celebration of human achievement, camaraderie and the indomitable spirit of competition,” Pacific Games organising committee board chairman Martin Rara told 15,000 fans sporting face paint and flags at the opening ceremony.

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Sogavare thanked donors including China, which sponsored the Games and also helped build the stadium adorned with the China Aid logo with its tagline “For Shared Future”. “Tonight we take the first step in telling our story to the whole world,” Sogavare said at the opening ceremony, expressing gratitude to “key nations” whose “significant contributions … made this Games possible”.

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