This is CBSI on the World. I'm John Batser. It's a great treat to speak with John Cune's,

a fellow novelist, call me Ishmael Zizbuk. He's also a man who assesses the Bougainville

Autonomous Region, not yet a republic, but intentions. This is now a resource-rich

part of the world. It is also a contest between the People's Republic of China and the

Five Eyes, Canberra, Wellington, Washington, Ottawa, London. We're looking at a contest

that favors the PRC with their cash and their promises and their influence, peddling.

This has happened recently in the Solomon Islands around Honoria, that used to be called

the Henderson Field. There's a contest in the Northern Pacific in Melanesia. The contest

will spin out across Oceania, but we're going to focus on Bougainville because in its fierce

independence means that it has a foreign policy consisting of, do you favor Taiwan or do you

favor the mainland? The arm twisting goes on routinely everywhere. If you want our money,

you've got to turn away from Taipei and Taiwan and embrace Beijing. John, I know this is strange

to say that a whole people who have fought for their independence can be judged on the basis of

the opinion of the capital of Taiwan. Is there an opinion in Aero? Is there an opinion in the

government of this dispute? There is. The President, Mr. Ishmael Torrama,

is very much in favor of and roots for the underdog. He has watched with dismay what has happened

across the slot in the Solomon Islands, which has been essentially a financial thuggery.

And nothing to do with that, but also wants to support Taiwan. I know for a fact that his first

diplomatic visit when he was inaugurated in September 2020 was from Taiwan. So at least in his

mind, there's a predilection towards supporting Taiwan in the Pacific. I learned from your interview

with Cleopascal, our colleague, that the way the PRC is going about this is to invest as they have

done in other islands, Sri Lanka, the Solomon's, invest in infrastructure using loans to build,

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