Sogavare's Reverse “China Card” is Absurd

Being critical of the US shouldn’t mean being a shameless booster for China

Just before Christmas, the Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, gave a fiery speech in which he demagogued about Sino-US rivalry and geopolitics, but from the opposite direction as most China hawks.

Sogavare declared:

I have to go down in the history of this country as the most hated prime minister, the most sworn at, and most falsely accused…I'm surprised at how low people can go in their hate campaign against the partnership that Solomon Islands forged with the great country of the People's Republic of China.

He complained of America’s “geopolitical superiority complex,” and depicted China as a bulwark against the West’s declining hegemony.

Two things about this.