On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will wrap up his ten-day tour of eight Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Having initially aimed for an <\/span>ambitious multilateral pact<\/span><\/a> on security and development, he has reluctantly settled for a series of <\/span>smaller bilateral agreements<\/span><\/a>. His trip has also <\/span>reinvigorated Australian and American outreach<\/span><\/a> in the Pacific, and <\/span>renewed attention<\/span><\/a> to China\u2019s hostility toward the free press. The restricted media access during Wang\u2019s visits highlights the precarious state of press freedom in the Pacific, exacerbated by outside powers <\/span>dueling for influence over Pacific Islanders<\/span><\/a> whose <\/span>own interests<\/span><\/a> have long been ignored.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first stop on Wang\u2019s tour was the Solomon Islands, where the government had <\/span>signed a secret security agreement<\/span><\/a> with China that was leaked in March. During Wang\u2019s stay, journalists from international outlets said they were <\/span>blocked from attending press events<\/span><\/a>, and the level of <\/span>secrecy surrounding his meetings<\/span><\/a> with the government led the Media Association of the Solomon Islands (MASI) to call on local media to boycott coverage of the visit. Radio New Zealand described <\/span>the \u201cridiculous\u201d restrictions in place at the only press conference of Wang\u2019s visit to the Solomon Islands<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] MASI president Georgina Kekea said it was disappointed that the media were only allowed limited access to the visit.<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] She said only two questions could be asked, one from a local journalist directed to the Solomon Islands foreign affairs minister, and one from Chinese media, directed to their foreign affairs minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] \u201cWhat is the purpose of hosting such an event for the press when they are only allowed one question and directed to their foreign minister only?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] She said the reason given that the arrangements were done that way because of covid-19 protocols did not stack up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have community transmission, people are crowded in buses, shops, markets, banks and so forth, so this is a very lame excuse,\u201d she said. [<\/span>Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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MASI called on its members to boycott Press Event by \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udde7 because it sees no logic for them to attend. Only selected local media orgs given credentials to attend. MASI says no to discrimination. All media must be allowed to do their job without fear or favor & must ask questions pic.twitter.com\/NfsbdLtojz<\/a><\/p>\n

— MASI (@solsmasi) May 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n