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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Georgina Kekea in Honiara

Solomon Islands secures $100m China loan to build Huawei mobile towers in historic step

In 2018, the Australian government intervened to stop Huawei building an undersea cable to Solomon Islands, citing security concerns.
In 2018, the Australian government intervened to stop China’s Huawei building an undersea cable to Solomon Islands, citing security concerns. Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

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.

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