Solomon Islands secures $100m China loan to build Huawei mobile towers in historic step
The Solomon Islands government has secured a $66m (A$96m) loan from China to build 161 mobile communication towers, which will be built and supplied by Chinese telco giant Huawei.
It is the Pacific country’s first loan from Beijing since it switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China in 2019 and is a significant bilateral development between the two countries, which signed a secretive and controversial security deal earlier this year.
The Huawei move was celebrated by the Solomon Islands government as “a historical financial partnership” between the two countries that would “work closely to ensure the successful implementation … of the project”.
The loan will come from the Exim Bank of China, which has offered a 1% interest rate.
The use of Huawei in building and supplying the towers will alarm some in Australia, which has banned Huawei from government contracts to build infrastructure in Australia, citing security concerns.
Huawei has become something of a global pariah amid security concerns over its links to the ruling Chinese communist government. In 2019, the US issued a ban on sharing technology with Huawei. In 2020, the British government issued an order that telecoms providers would have to stop installing Huawei equipment in the country’s 5G network.
In 2018, before Solomon Islands switched diplomatic alliance from Taiwan to China, Solomon Islands awarded a contract to Huawei to build an underwater telecommunication cable network. The Australian government intervened, offering to jointly fund the construction of the cable, which the Solomons government accepted.
The Solomon Islands government has announced it hopes to install 48% of the infrastructure by November 2023 when it is scheduled to host the Pacific
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