58 Asia The Economist December 4th 2021
T
he eventsthat unspooled in the
Solomon Islands on November
24th were from an old script. Protesters
from Malaita, the most populous island,
crossed to the biggest, Guadalcanal, with
grievances over corruption and inequal
ity. They called for the prime minister to
go. Near parliament in Honiara, the
capital, the protest descended into vio
lence. Three days of looting in the city
left much of Chinatown destroyed. Three
people died in burning buildings. The
damage runs to millions of dollars. It will
be a long haul back to normality.
The Solomon Islands is a threadbare
state, and Malaitans have always been
among the poorest islanders. Investment
and jobs are concentrated on Gaudalca
nal. Over the decades Malaitans flocked
there, which stoked ethnic tensions. In
the late 1990s natives of Guadalcanal
campaigned, through intimidation, to
drive Malaitans off the island. Rival
militias fought. In 2003 the government
asked Australia for help. The Australian
led Regional Assistance Mission to Solo
mon Islands (ramsi) was popular. Its
police and troops could not stop rioting
in 2006. But it did prevent the Solomon
Islands tipping from threadbare state to
failed one. ramsiwound up in 2017,
when the Solomon Islands signed a
security treaty with Australia.
On November 25th the prime min
ister, Manasseh Sogavare, invoked the
treaty. Within hours Australian police
and troops were on a plane back to Honi
ara. And so the old spool unreels. But this
time the plot has a new, geopolitical
twist. On coming to power in 2019 for the
fourth time, Mr Sogavare severed long
standing diplomatic relations with Tai
wan and took them up with China, which
had been spraying promises of money
and development about the region.Daniel Suidani, Malaita’s premier,
fiercely opposed the switch. Like many of
Malaita’s Christians, he condemns China’s
rulers’ communism and atheism. He
warns that Chinese companies would
bring few benefits. He wants a referendum
on secession. His advisers say China is
behind attempts to oust him with no
confidence votes.
As for China, its nationalistic press and
academics accuse America and Australia
of fomenting unrest as a means of em
boldening Taiwan and thus splitting the
motherland. Mr Sogavare also blames
“foreign powers” for the turmoil, even as
he asks for Australian help.
Mr Sogavare’s fingerpointing is an
effort to shift attention away from his own
government’s corruption and its failure to
help the poorest. China’s fingerpointing
is cynical, solipsistic or illinformed. An
inglorious tradition of attacks on Honia
ra’s Chineserun businesses, including
during riots in 2006, long predates China’s
official presence. Many shopkeepers—
economic migrants from Fujian prov
ince—lord it over locals. They sit on stacksof plastic chairs, monitoring staff and
watching for shoplifters. Locals resent
their economic dominance, and these
Chinese lack the social networks that
help protect other ethnic groups in the
Solomon Islands from violence. Instead
they fortify their shops and warehouses
with steel shutters and high windows.
Nearby squatter camps full of underem
ployed young men are a powder keg. In
late November squatters breached the
forts and looted rice and cooking oil.
Although the roots of the violence are
local, no foreign power involved in the
geopolitical struggle that is playing out
across the region is blameless. China has
followed Taiwan in filling slush funds for
friendly mps. The government’s cosy ties
with Chinese state enterprises are re
sented in a country that has long been
exploited by foreign timber companies
and mining firms.
Taiwan tried to create a publicrela
tions splash by giving protective gear to
Malaita, but not the rest of the country,
during the pandemic. As for America, it
became interested in the Solomon Is
lands only under Donald Trump. A year
ago his administration earmarked $25m
for Malaita. This unusual move of allo
cating money to a subnational govern
ment accounted for over a tenth of all its
new funding in the Pacific. As Mihai Sora
of the Lowy Institute, a thinktank in
Sydney, writes, currying sympathy with
local actors without considering deeper
social and political currents undermines
social cohesion.
Australia, still the region’s goto
power, now has to deal with the conse
quences. How much time Mr Sogavare
will have to pick up the pieces is unclear.
Four of the eight Malaitan mps in his
government have quit. On December 6th
he will face a noconfidence vote.China’s influence in the Solomon Islands is one factor in an explosion of violenceBanyan A familiar script
Japan provides generous support to smes
through longstanding credit guarantees.
That helps poor performers stay alive (and
threequarters of Japan’s small firms are
over ten years old, compared with half in
most rich countries). The subsidies also
dry up as firms get bigger, giving them an
incentive not to.
Suga Yoshihide, who stepped down as
prime minister in September, was con
scious of these problems. His government
introduced subsidies encouraging smes to
merge with each other and to expand into
new lines of business. It slightly raised theminimum wage, which is low by the stan
dards of rich countries, in the hope of
prodding business owners to seek ways to
make their staff more productive. But ma
ny smallbusiness owners have railed
against these reforms.
Kishida Fumio, who succeeded Mr Suga
as prime minister, is taking a milder ap
proach. He has talked up causes that please
smallbusiness owners, such as finding
ways to stop large firms bullying subcon
tractors. Making companies bigger need
not be the only way of boosting productiv
ity, argues Okada Koichi at Meiji Universityin Tokyo. He says the government could do
more to help smes invest in technology.
Companies such as Tokosha see little
advantage in mergers. Given the time it
takes to train craftspeople, “you can’t all of
a sudden make these companies bigger,”
Mr Inoue says. His customers are aficiona
dos who appreciate subtle differences be
tween brands. “Every scissor has its own
flavour,” he adds. Mr Inoue has not thought
much about buying competitors or selling
his firm. But hedoesworry about who will
succeed him. Hehopes his nephew will
take over one day.n