SOLOMON ISLANDS (Commonwealth Union)_According to a recent analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Chinese government has been conducting a coordinated disinformation campaign in the Solomon Islands, alleging that Australia, the United States, and Taiwan instigated the riots that shook the nation’s capital Honiara last year (ASPI).
Following the political uproar over the China-Solomon Islands security treaty, Chinese diplomats stepped up their criticism of Western nations, ASPI claimed. State media was used to portray the US and Australia as colonialist bullies.
Beijing has gained only a little amount of online traction in its attempts to influence public opinion and weaken both Australia and the US in Solomon Islands.
A recent study that carefully examined Chinese official propaganda efforts in the Solomon Islands over two time periods totalling a combined 18 weeks has the conclusions. It was discovered that during that time, 67 articles on the Solomon Islands were published by Chinese official media outlets, 70% of which had the express purpose of damaging the country’s relations with the US and Australia or promoting Chinese state narratives.
However, on public Facebook pages, where the great majority of Solomon Islanders read internet content, those 67 pieces were only shared 11 times.
“They were posting an article almost every other day, yet just a few of those were ever shared on Pacific Island Facebook groups,” Blake Johnson, the report’s primary author, said. “And even when they were, there was very little interaction, and the remarks tended to be critical of China.” Therefore, these two options were not very successful.
According to Mr. Johnson, China had more success by persuading Solomon Islands publications to repost press releases and state media articles from the Chinese government. “Compared to other Solomon Islands ambassadors, they were a lot more involved in this field. They were practically [as active] as the administration of the Solomon Islands,” he added.
Photo Credit: foreignpolicy.com
