After a mob burnt down buildings and pillaged shops in Honiara last week, the smoke over the capital of the Solomon Islands was interpreted as another iteration of the geopolitical battle between China and the US.

Many of the ransacked properties were owned by ethnic Chinese and some reports cast the unrest as “rioting over China”. Daniel Suidani, premier of Malaita, the home province of most of the protesters, has been campaigning against prime minister Manasseh Sogavare for his move to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China two years ago. Sogavare himself has claimed that the unrest was “influenced and encouraged by other powers”, a thinly veiled reference to aid Malaita has received from Taiwan and the US since the central government’s shift towards China.

The Solomon Islands, once a key battlefield between the US and Japan in the second world war, have again become a frontline in great power rivalry. But the latest Honiara riots also reflect a failure to address poverty and inequality and to provide its people with economic prospects.