The recently appointed American ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, will this weekend make an official visit to the Solomon Islands — site of World War II’s pivotal Battle of Guadalcanal — in what is seen in part as a bid to counter the growing threat of Chinese dominance in the South Pacific. China and the Solomon Islands in April signed a security pact that, according to multiple reports, grants Beijing port access with allowances to dispatch armed military and police personnel to the Pacific island nation. 

The extension of Chinese influence to the Solomon Islands, however remote they may seem, has already raised the hackles of Canberra. In March, Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, said, “That is our backyard, this is our neighborhood, and we are very concerned of any activity that is taking place in the Pacific Islands.” Of paramount concern to Australia and America is the prospect of China establishing a naval base at the Solomons, which have a population of 700,000 and are situated a thousand miles east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a Chinese state-owned company is negotiating to buy a deep-water port and a former World War II airstrip in the Solomons and that “money from Beijing has helped keep the Pacific nation’s controversial leader in power.” Noteworthy, too, is the ABC’s assertion that the Solomons severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan “in favor of Beijing” in 2019.

Australia is still a major provider of assistance to the Solomons, but as the Times of London reported, Washington plans to spend $900 million on fishing assistance over the next decade and will also establish embassies in the Solomons as well as in far-flung Kiribati and Tonga. Yet the decision of Ms. Kennedy to visit the nation, which consists of hundreds of small islands, now has a symbolic dimension too. She will be there during the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal, which started on August 7, 1942, and concluded on February 9, 1943, with a decisive victory over Japan. That symbolism will likely not be lost on Beijing, despite Communist China’s current preoccupation with Taiwan. 

There will also be a personal dimension to the visit by the 64-year-old Ms. Kennedy. The highly capable public speaker served as ambassador to Japan under President Obama, and is the daughter of President Kennedy. Her father commanded PT-109, an American Navy patrol torpedo boat that was struck and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands in August 1943. Kennedy and all but two of his crew made it to shore after that incident, and were eventually rescued by Solomon Islanders and one Australian. 

A deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, whose father was a Marine master sergeant and was wounded at Guadalcanal, will join Ms. Kennedy in the Solomons. According to a state department press release, Ms. Sherman will “deliver remarks at a U.S.-organized ceremony on Skyline Ridge, the site of the U.S. Guadalcanal Memorial. She will also deliver remarks at a Solomon Islands-hosted memorial at Bloody Ridge and attend additional memorial events organized by Solomon Islands and Japan.”

It was not immediately clear if any officials from Australia will be present during the events commemorating the Battle of Guadalcanal. In addition to Ms. Kennedy, the American delegation visiting August 6-8 will include two Marine Corps lieutenant generals: Stephen Sklenka, who is deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and Steven Rudder, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific.