‘Disturbing’ leaked plans for Chinese military presence on Australia’s doorstep

A leaked document reveals China is in discussions to establish a military base only 2000 kilometres from Australia’s coastline.

A draft framework agreement between the Solomon Islands and China indicates “China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in and have stopover and transition in the Solomon Islands”.

Executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, says Australians are “right to be worried”.

He says there are two “disturbing” elements to the security deal.

“It really completely undermines the independence of the Solomon Islands,” Mr Jennings told Neil Mitchell.

“It basically says that China, for its own needs, can bring any type of military forces or intelligence gathering capabilities for its own purposes into the Solomons.

“The other thing about the agreement … is it says this should all be kept completely secret.”

Press PLAY below to hear why Mr Jennings thinks Australians should be concerned

The leaked document comes a week after Australia announced the establishment of a new naval base on the country’s east coast for nuclear submarines.

China has tried to dominate Asia by occupying the South China Sea and building military facilities there, and Mr Jennings says the bid to base Chinese warships in the Solomon Islands is part of a plan to make it “hard for the United States to bring its own military forces into Asia”.

“That helps to explain the amount of money that China is prepared to put into frankly trying to buy the elites of Pacific Island countries in order to get their agreement to establish naval bases,” he said.

Mr Jennings is calling on the Australian government to send a message to Solomon Islands government.

“This is not a red line we can allow it to cross,” he said.

“If the Solomon Islands wants to have a relationship with Australia they cannot turn themselves into a military facility for the Chinese. This is going to have to take some tough talking from Australia. I think perhaps we need to be a little harder than we normally are.”

“I think we have to let them know that there are consequences to this.”

Australia is the Solomon Islands main aid provider, providing more than $174 million in aid to the nation in 2019-20.

Image: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) shakes hands with Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele during a ceremony to mark the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations –  Naohiko Hatta – Pool/Getty Images