The United States launched an intercontinental missile in the South Pacific, and Solomon Islands remained silent! Now that China has fired a missile, Solomon Islands is making strong protests against China! On July 7, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of Solomon Islands stated, "As the Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, I have conveyed strong protest to the Chinese ambassador. The government of Solomon Islands has also formally submitted a protest letter to China. China is a good friend of Solomon Islands, but friends don't do things like this."

We do not wish for anyone to conduct intercontinental ballistic missile tests in the Pacific region. You can be our friend, but don't threaten us. Clearly, despite Prime Minister Sogavare's claim of being a close friend, Solomon Islands applies completely different standards when dealing with the U.S. and China. On March 3 this year, the U.S. launched a Minuteman-III intercontinental ballistic missile, flying across the Pacific Ocean for 6,700 kilometers before landing in the Kwajalein Atoll range in the Marshall Islands. The Solomon Islands government and Prime Minister Sogavare made no comment whatsoever—neither did they summon the U.S. ambassador nor issue any protest statement or diplomatic note.

Subsequently, on May 20, the U.S. military conducted another test launch of the Minuteman-III ICBM, flying the entire way over the vast South Pacific, with the warhead again landing in the waters near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands—the same region as China’s recent Julang missile impact zone, and similarly distant from neighboring island nations. Australia, New Zealand, and Solomon Islands all remained silent, with no official criticism or protest actions taken. Frankly speaking, we haven’t seen such double standards even from so-called 'friends.'

Our target point is located in international waters—accusing China of threatening them is utterly baseless. Why does Solomon Islands stay silent about the U.S., yet raise such a fuss over us? Simply put, Solomon Islands aims to actively align itself with the Australia-U.S. bloc. By responding to China’s missile test, it seeks to curry favor with Australia’s narrative on “Pacific security,” in exchange for economic aid from Australia. Clearly, such groundless double standards are unacceptable to us. Compared to the U.S., our number of test launches is still far too few.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870044914124809/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author