The Economist USA - 26.10.2019

The EconomistOctober 26th 2019 Asia 35

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website hosting them crashed as curious

Thais flocked to it.

Queen Suthida is the king’s fourth wife.

He divorced and humiliated his first, a

cousin who bore him a daughter. He has

disowned four of his five children with his

second wife, an actress, who fled abroad.

And he imprisoned the parents and broth-

ers of his third wife after he divorced her.

She herself has disappeared from sight.

No one dares to criticise the king’s vi-

ciousness or caprice. In recent days he also

fired six palace officials for “extremely evil”

conduct. Successive Thai governments

have long fostered public adulation of the

monarchy—an easier task under the king’s

mild-mannered father. Since King Vajira-

longkorn came to the throne three years

ago, he has exploited this reverence to de-

mand sweeping formal powers. In 2017 he

insisted the constitution should be

changed to make it easier for him to live

abroad (as he does, in Germany) without

appointing a regent, even though Thai vot-

ers had already approved the text in a refer-

endum. Last year he took personal owner-

ship of the Crown Property Bureau, an

agency which has managed royal land and

investments for decades. Its holdings are

thought to be worth more than $40bn. Ear-

lier this month the government issued a

decree transferring command of two army

units directly to King Vajiralongkorn.

Thailand’s harsh lèse-majesté law curbs

discussion of these manoeuvres. The

courts hand out long prison sentences for

even vague criticism of the king or other

royals. Yet this has not deterred recent

grumbling on social media over the traffic

caused by royal motorcades. Nor did it

seem to scare those who wrote about Ms Si-

neenat’s downfall. The hashtag #SaveKoy

began trending, Koy being a nickname for

the disgraced mistress. Despite the fulmi-

nating royal statement, every Thai knows

that no one can beat the king himself for in-

gratitude, misbehaviour and disloyalty. 7

Almost queen for almost three months

H

eadline-grabbing deals in which

Chinese firms promise to build im-

pressive infrastructure in some neglected

corner of the world have a habit of unravel-

ling—but usually not so quickly. Last

month a local official in the Solomon Is-

lands signed an agreement with the China

Sam Enterprise Group, a Chinese conglom-

erate. It involved a 75-year lease for Tulagi,

a small island that was the capital of the

Solomon Islands in colonial times, along

with the construction of an oil and gas ter-

minal, a fishing harbour and a “special eco-

nomic zone”. But after a headline in the

New York Timesdeclared this week, “China

Is Leasing an Entire Pacific Island”, frantic

back-pedalling ensued. The official who

signed the agreement, Stanley Maniteva,

appeared to disown it: “Leasing Tulagi will

not be possible...Nothing will eventuate.”

China Sam is not the only Chinese com-

pany hoping to take advantage of the na-

tional government’s decision last month to

scrap diplomatic relations with Taiwan

and establish them with China instead. Ex-

ecutives from the China Civil Engineering

Construction Corporation, a big investor in

neighbouring Vanuatu, lobbied for the

change with an offer of $500,000 in loans

and grants. China Railway International

has promised to lend $825m to help resus-

citate a defunct gold mine. The Chinese

government says it will build a sports sta-

dium and provide the cash to repay $1.2m

owed to Taiwan. China even offered to

make up for the donations Taiwan will no

longer be giving to the Rural Constituency

Development Fund, which mps in the Solo-

mons use to pay for pet projects in their

constituencies.

Despite the subsequent disavowals, the

Tulagi scheme was not the misguided ini-

tiative of a wayward provincial premier.

The prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare,

visited Beijing in early October, where he

signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative,

China’s grand plan to improve the infra-

structure of its trading partners. There he

and his ministers met executives from Chi-

na Sam and other big Chinese firms such as

Huawei, a telecoms giant.

Mr Sogavare’s decision to sever rela-

tions with Taiwan has provoked a split in

his government. His predecessor as prime

minister, Rick Houenipwela, was sacked

from the cabinet last month for failing to

back the switch, as were several other min-

isters who were sympathetic to Taiwan. Mr

Sogavare is currently serving his fourth

term as head of government. His previous

term ended in a vote of no confidence in

2017 in response to allegations, which he

denied, that he had received a kickback

from Huawei for a contract to lay a high-

speed internet cable from the Solomon Is-

lands to Sydney. Mr Houenipwela replaced

him. Soon thereafter, Australia announced

plans to build its own undersea cable,

trumping Huawei. Perhaps Australia will

offer to lease an island next. 7

WELLINGTON

A Chinese firm may or may not be

leasing one of the Solomon Islands

China in the Pacific

Island shopping

Port Vila

Noumea

Sydney

Honiara

Tu l a g i

Port Moresby

AUSTRALIA

SOLOMON IS.

VANUATU

New

Caledonia

(France)

PAPUA

NEW GUINEA

500 km

F

irst the monsoon overwhelmed

blocked and decrepit drains and left

large parts of Karachi underwater. At least

17 people died, several electrocuted by

loose wires from the shoddy power system.

Then there were unusually severe swarms

of flies, blackening all surfaces in markets

and shops. Mounting piles of uncollected

rubbish added to residents’ woes. One

morning Clifton Beach, a tourist attraction

known for camel rides, was strewn with

medical waste and syringes.

None of the afflictions of recent months

is unprecedented, but the confluence of

them all created an impression of “com-

plete civic breakdown”, says Farzana

Shaikh of Chatham House, a British think-

tank. Karachi is home to 16m people, ac-

cording to the latest census, although

many suspect that the count missed mil-

lions more. It is not only Pakistan’s largest

city, but also its principal seaport, its finan-

cial hub and the capital of Sindh, one of its

four provinces. Wild, unplanned growth

has overwhelmed almost every element of

ISLAMABAD

As Pakistan’s biggest city crumbles,

politicians argue about who’s in charge

Karachi

King of the heap