The Economist May 7th 2022 Leaders 15shipping routes and citizens who live or work abroad.
The neighbours are not convinced. China has built landing
strips and missile batteries to assert its claims to disputed reefs
in the South China Sea. It reserves the right to seize the demo
cratic island of Taiwan by force. Its open ambition to control
more territory than it currently does suggests a darker side to
this maritime diplomacy. Its goal in Asia is a continent made up
of individual countries that genuflect to the regional giant. It
wants America out of its backyard, and an end to Americanled
alliances (see Chaguan).
The Solomons deal is a warning to America and its allies. Chi
na denies a naval base is in the works, but a leaked draft of the se
cret agreement envisages the deployment of Chinese troops and
visits by Chinese ships. That could give China a military pres
ence not just near important shipping routes, but between
America and its Pacific allies, Australia and New Zealand.
How to respond? For a start, democracies should learn from
China, which has spent years diligently wooing Pacific Island
governments. America’s engagement, by contrast, waned after
the cold war’s end, giving it the reputation of a fickle and high
handed partner. It closed its embassy on the Solomons in 1993.
Australia’s national broadcaster stopped shortwave radio trans
missions to the Pacific five years ago, despite their value to locals
as a source of information. China Radio International now
broadcasts on some of those same frequencies. China persuaded
the Solomons and Kiribati to stop recognising Taiwan in 2019,reportedly in exchange for generous aid and aeroplanes.
America and its allies, who still enjoy more goodwill in the
region than China, should offer Pacific Islanders a better, more
transparent deal. Aid is not the problem—Australia is still the
largest donor to the Solomons. Instead Western countries need
to offer enhanced terms of trade, more open labour markets and
technology and expertise, especially in areas that matter to Pa
cific states, such as climate change, education, environmental
protection, health care, illegal fishing and internet connectivity.
America has promised to reopen its embassy and hold a stra
tegic dialogue with the Solomons. Better still would be to create
a new position, American ambassador to the Pacific, with a more
direct line to the White House. That would help America, Austra
lia and New Zealand coordinate their policies across the region,
not just with each other, but with Japan, France and other like
minded democracies that have interests there.
America and its allies will not be able to stop China every
where—nor should they try. A limited Chinese military presence
abroad does not have to be a threat. In Djibouti Chinese soldiers
have thus far coexisted with American, French, Italian and Jap
anese forces, all of which have their own bases in the country.
Rather than play “global whackamole”, as an American expert
puts it, Western countries should treat this challenge like chess.
That means anticipating Chinese moves, making blocking
manoeuvres when necessary, and thinking in a strategicway.
Just don’t treat countries like the Solomons as pawns.nH
ere’s a thoughtexperiment. If Russia had a free press,
how many Russians would support Vladimir Putin’s inva
sion of Ukraine? Here’s another: how might the early days of co
vid19 have unfolded if the virus had first emerged in a country
with a free press, rather than China? Could the government of
such a country have hushed it up for those crucial early weeks?
As news junkies celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May
3rd, it was worth remembering why it matters. A free press can
scrutinise the mighty, expose corruption and deter abuses. For a
tyrant, as Napoleon Bonaparte once lamented,
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared
than 1,000 bayonets.” The free flow of informa
tion is the lifeblood of democracy. Without it,
voters cannot make informed choices. Govern
ments struggle to notice or correct their mis
takes. And free media make it easier for good
ideas and useful information to spread, thereby
accelerating progress.
Yet around the world, press freedom is in decline (see Inter
national section). Around 85% of people live in countries where
it has been constricted in the past five years. It is now as ham
strung as it was in 1984, during the cold war. The nature of cen
sorship has evolved since then, however. Hundreds of reporters
are still jailed, and dozens are killed each year. But most modern
autocrats at least pay lip service to the idea of a free press, and
choose more subtle weapons with which to attack it.
State advertising budgets are lavished on fawning outlets.Critical ones get tax audits and fines for defamation. Such ha
rassment can tip struggling media firms into the red. Some may
then be bought by rulingparty cronies, who may not mind if
their television stations lose money, so long as they please the
people who dole out publicworks contracts. Mr Putin pioneered
this approach; it has been widely imitated.
Technology is being used to make life hell for uppity hacks.
New tools make it easier to spy on them. Investigations last year
found Pegasus eavesdropping software had been slipped into
the mobile phones of almost 200 journalists, to
read their messages, track them and identify
their sources. Social media can be used to ha
rass reporters. A survey found almost three
quarters of female journalists have endured on
line abuse. This is scariest when it is organised,
and has the tacit backing of the ruling party. In
India, for example, critics of the prime minis
ter, Narendra Modi, face torrents of death and
rape threats from Hindu nationalist trolls, who sometimes pub
lish their addresses and incite vigilantes to visit them.
Even in liberal democracies, laws against libel and invasion
of privacy are often abused. Oligarchs from elsewhere sue muck
raking reporters in London, hoping to impose on them ruinous
legal costs and endless hassle (see next leader). In Poland one
popular newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has been hit with more
than 60 cases in recent years, many brought by leaders of the rul
ing party. A Maltese journalist who exposed state corruption wasGovernments are finding insidious ways to muzzle the mediaThe gag tightens
Press freedom