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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour.

The Solomon Islands were a U.S. stronghold in the Pacific during World War II. Now it’s becoming a regional testing ground for China’s increasing influence. WORLD’s Amy Lewis has the story.

AMY LEWIS: When public disorder and petty crimes threatened the calm of the small village of Fighter One, local official Dr. Pedical Togamae hoped local police would intervene. When they didn’t, he and other leaders took matters into their own hands. They invited a Chinese police liaison team to teach them their community policing methods.

PEDICAL TOGAMAE: We really want to make this community a quiet community.

Togamae says he and his committee are only looking for ideas and won’t necessarily put into practice everything they’ve been taught.

TOGAMAE: We were the ones that invited them. We want to hear some ideas, and they explain what they usually do.

The Chinese taught them—and leaders in 16 other villages—how to fingerprint residents, register each household, and map the community to, in their words: “improve security.” Chinese officials used games to familiarize children with surveillance drones.

All these techniques are part of what’s called the Fengqiao Experience. It’s a Chinese method of community surveillance and control begun by Mao Zedong in the 1960’s and reintroduced with a vengeance under Xi Jinping. In China, people are encouraged to report anyone who disagrees with the communist party or strays from its rules in any way.

In 1942, Fighter One was the primary base for U.S. Navy and Air Force fighters and bombers during World War II. Over time, it became a small village. Six years ago, Togamae spearheaded fundraising to build a road from his remote village to the main road. That also brought them electricity for the first time. And lots more people.

Our connection was a little spotty.

TOGAMAE: We have a community issues like…noisy, not nice, or drinking overnight, drunken drivers drive through the community, thieves breaking in at some of our homes.

He says that, within six years, his village grew from 10 households to 50. But he adds, they won’t know how many people that includes until they complete the data collection the Chinese officials taught them.

Togamae believes his village will be safer if the police have everyone’s fingerprints. They’ll also catch criminals more quickly. But the first official elected town council hasn’t implemented those tactics—yet.

This is the first known time the Fengqiao Experience has been taught outside China.

PETER KENILOREA: I think there must be something bigger behind this…

Peter Kenilorea, Jr., is a Solomon Islands parliamentarian and chairman of the foreign relations committee. His father was Solomon Islands’ first prime minister.

He says village-wide fingerprinting concerns him.

KENILOREA: So there are certain contexts in which you consent to, to fingerprinting, but to have one in terms of the context of prevention of crime is, is definitely unheard of for us here in Solomon Islands.

But it’s not unheard of in China.

KENILOREA: I'm aware of their social credit system that they have, you know, and in China, and how they, they start to influence people's behavior by threatening them.

Solomon Islands’ government website says the training in Fighter One is the beginning of the Solomon Islands-China Police Cooperation Model Communities. Kenilorea fears that one model Fengqiao community today could lead to a Pacific model next.

KENILOREA: …and they could sell it as, you know, various economic, kind of, prerequisite maybe.

From 1998 to 2003, internal ethnic fighting in Solomon Islands brought a collapse of law and order, with that, less respect for police officers.

WICKHAM: You know how society loses certain things during conflict?

Dorothy Wickham used to own two pieces of property in Fighter One and is the editor of the Melanesian News. She says the ethnic conflicts resulted in a loss of community etiquette and cooperation. It changed the social structure of families and communities. She fears that is driving residents to extreme measures to try and replace what was lost.

WICKHAM: If they look at the Chinese model and they think, okay, maybe that will work here, and they'll ask for it.

She understands the frustration, and why the community went looking for help. Local police have been ineffective with small issues, things like quiet hours go unenforced. So do the bigger infractions.

WICKHAM: We have the laws, but it's the enforcement that is the problem, here.

Fighter One wants to get its peace back, and Fengqiao methods appear to fit the local culture.

WICKHAM: We have always followed the leader who is the most feared. That's what's in our culture, the Melanesian culture.

Chinese influence in Solomon Islands isn’t new. Chinese people have been investing in and integrating into the island culture for over 100 years.

WICKHAM: We've got Chinese shops even in the rural areas, because nobody else wants to go and invest there.

In post-Cold War 1993, the United States closed its Solomon Islands embassy. The Biden administration reopened it in 2023 when it became concerned about China’s military ambitions. But the ambassador lives 875 miles away in Port Moresby, where she’s also the ambassador for Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. That leaves a significant gap that China has leveraged to its advantage.

Dorothy Wickham says there are better options than preventative fingerprinting, surveillance drones, and data collection. When boys in her neighborhood make noise late at night, she does what caring adults and community-minded neighbors have done for generations.

WICKHAM: I go out and chase our young boys around this neighborhood who make too much noise, and keep reminding them, ‘You're not the only ones who live here. You know you have other people who go to bed at eight.’

For World Tour, I’m Amy Lewis.

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