On March 19, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News reported that during a pre-election speech, the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, praised the Chinese government and its political system, and suggested that democracy leads to moral decay, alluding to the U.S.
The Prime Minister also said that his government’s decision to recognize China, instead of Taiwan, put the “Solomon Islands on the map”.
The Prime Minister was quoted as saying that “You don’t see beggars in China asking for money … [you] see that in every major city in the United States [and] it’s supposed to be the number one economy in the world” and that “Men can marry men, women can marry women — [those] are the values associated with the values of democracy”.
The Solomon Islands is a conservative Christian country, with an estimated 92% of the population identifying as Christian.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Solomon Islands.
This comes as rising tensions between the U.S. and China have turned the Indo-Pacific into a battleground for influence between both nations.
