shawn is wrong with the young people clearly have the solutions, the future loans the 77 percent every weekend on d. w. here watching d. w. news asia coming up today growing tensions in the south pacific as china looked to move into australia's backyard. we look at beijing's proposed security deal with the solomon islands and what that means for the region. plus another national security concern. take talk in taiwan. the chinese social media ab is popular there, but officials say teenagers must use it with caution. ah,

i melissa chan, thanks for joining us. we're taking a closer look at development in the south pacific today. specifically the solomon islands. it is planning a security deal with china. and the idea of chinese warships based less than 2000 kilometers off the australian coast off it's northeast, has set alarm bells ringing. in fact, even the united states is worried. the white house has plans to send its top asia official, kurt campbell to the small nation later this month. the ongoing battle for influenced between china and the west shifting to the south pacific. beijing is helping its presence. a draft agreement would allow chinese police and soldiers to patrol to solomon islands. the 5 eyes intelligence alliance, britain, canada, australia, new zealand. fierce china is eyeing a naval base there. the solomons have long been seen as australia's backyard. the

archipelago was a long way from china, but it's just a 3 hour flight from brisbin. australian anew zealand. leaders are not happy the what the reports that we've seen, and not a surprise to us at a reminder of the constant pressure and threats that present in our region to our, our national security that we use down his long expressed and opinion that we do not want to say the militarization of the pacific that we believe we can support one another with defeats and security needs as they arise. and you see on has a history of doing that in the solomon islands of unity here. solomon island switch, diplomatic ties from taiwan to beijing in 2019, which party fuel discontent that led to riots in the capitol hon yara, in november last year. chinese businesses were attacked in the unrest. solomon islands, prime minister, men essay suck of our dismisses critics of the treaty with china as lunatics

disrespectful of the island sovereignty. we have no intention wish to speak of pitching into any geopolitical power struggle. the suggested mrs. figure is simply ludicrous. as a sovereign come from is to speak, we will continue to collaborate, to ensure that walks. so when all is nice in a security space address collector without developing pos, china wants to build a blue water navy capable of projecting power around the world. to make this work, it needs basses from which to service the strike force. china tries to play down fears of wants to expand in the region and blames australia for promoting us lead competition. don't all so alien as to independent and sovereign countries. china and solomon islands can carry out normal long foresman and security cooperation

only on the basis of equal treatment and mutual benefit under jeff. i unco so the west has been stung by the speed with which china has moved to militarize. the man made islands in the south china sea. a move to solomon islands increases the risk of escalation and potential conflict. joining us in the studio is d w 's. clifford coon in clifford tell us more about this proposed security deal. i thought australia had some kind of relationship with the solomon islands. it does. it already has a security deal. and it also is a very complicated and intertwined relationship with the solomon islands. you know, as, as we mentioned the report, it's a 2 hour flight from brisbin am and the south pacific as seen very much as australia's backyard it's sphere of influence. and it gives $1300000000.00 us dollars every year in development aid on it has various other security guarantees. when there was on rest, their november last year, they sent em security forces their tuition to shore up the unrest. so they do have

this very complicated relationship, but am, it's also very, a difficult balancing act in many ways for australia as we can see in a quote here from, from scott morrison as a friend of solomon islands, we remain their 1st call for security. we remained the 1st call when it comes to the issues that concern them right across their development. i the suggestion that somehow some seem to be making that that solomon islands is on somehow under the control of the strider, i think is offensive to the solomon islands. dyer, sovereign nation, i respect their independence and they will make their own decisions about their own sovereignty. what we have been doing is ensuring that they are fully aware of the risks and the security matters that are not only of concern to australia, but islands civic nations across the pacific. so i think there was a common shows that if you look at it from the solomon islands perspective, you know there 100 and 51st in the 189 countries on the u and human development

index. so it's a poor country, it needs australia's help, but then china can also offer economic guarantees as well as security guarantees. so it's a very loanable country with a lot of needs. i think a lot of people in asia probably looking at the situation and wondering the parallel with the south china seas because this potential security agreement can quickly turn into a very permanent military installation. he talk a little bit about that. sure. well, china wants to establish itself as the premier power broker in the endo pacific. and it's done this through various means through trying to broker deals with various countries. usually economic guarantees in some way, solomon islands is unusual because it's, it's a straightforward security guarantee which is something that we've seen in djibouti in africa before. but we haven't really seen that so much in the region near to china. so it does have a lot of parallels there. we've seen how china has militarized these 3 islands and which are near the philippines, which has led recently to the philippines,

talking to japan. all these countries, all of china's neighbors, basically have some kind of territorial dispute with china and because of china's efforts to expand its influence. so, and there are parallels with that, and i think we're going to see more and more of that as things go on. now australia is part of the quad, together with the united states, india, japan. and you also recently have had the agreement between us truly the u. k. and the u. s. in terms of providing nuclear power submarines. so a china can sort of say, hey, this is in circle ment i feels like it and we have the right to engage with the solomon islands if we want to. well, china generally says whenever this comes up it says that it's only doing what the u . s is don't before that it's sphere of influence is pretty much where it decides. and the solomon islands is a long way away from china. now you can see as, as an extension, because it's in the pacific area and china wants to basically control the pacific. am but so encirclement is one argument,

but in reality this is more just about trying to control the civic am. and it's interesting our mark milly, the joint german of the joint chiefs of staff. he said recently the china is trying to is trying to break the established system of rule of law. and one of the areas that he focus particularly on was the navy. and i think and watching, watching the sort of china's efforts to control the marine, they're developing a load, their technological advances are focused on, on naval vessels. for example, they're going to have a new aircraft carrier which launches by catapult. and they're also trying to develop an aircraft carrier that's a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. so there's a lot of technological advancement, there's a lot of defense spending going into controlling the navy. and i think, you know, it shows just how focused at the china. is it a china is on the, on the search on a c and the whole pacific? yeah, i mean, if you look at the maps, the solomon islands are so far away from china, so really quickly, i mean, ratcheting up of tensions in the pacifica. i think so, i think that's where we're looking at now for now that there's just going to be

a succession of these sort of deals being struck. there's a lot of small countries in the area, a lot of small island states, a lot of them with various great strategic importance. so certainly more tensions in the asia pacific clifford quinn and thank you so much as always for joining us. ah, tick tock has become the social media app of choice for teenagers around the world, including those in ty, wine. and that's a concern for some grown ups. they're worried about deliberate, dis, information spread on the chinese own platform. china considers taiwan in independently govern democracy part of its territory, which means that even with a simple app, the stakes can be incredibly high for tony's users. he w zachary lee has more from taipei listening to china's pop songs on tick tock, elementary school students. and ethan is one of many active users of china's social

media platform. here today, she shows her tick to profile to her classmates where she has more than 2000 followers on our family. also, i know what's popular now and that it music and video, for example, famous chinese pop songs. oh, well i can edit the video and song and upload it to the platform, and hopefully it will be a hit on tick tock. i would say my contents are related to china because i love china's pop stars. i don't, i korean puddle gold with a handle tick tock. his 4200000 users in taiwan and nearly 40 percent of them are teenagers. oh, young adults, lawmakers from ty, once ruling party accused china of conducting so called cognitive warfare through is social media to influence young people. here in town is high schools.

nearly every student has a tiptoe account, and they are all very familiar with china's content and social media. doesn't anything of the content is all in super fight chinese probably uploaded by chinese mainland as aiming at tony's uses. for example, some side, the pandemic is made by the us, and it's not from china. now we're back, or some video shows i will. china is controlling the covey. 19 pandemic, a little harder. jimmy can base his photos and edit them into a video. now he has over 6000 followers in school. he could hardly put his phone down, tick toast, growing, hold on, students in taiwan. his many here worried closer to the edge on 201. it's high if you're immersed in china, strictly controlled, social media environment for a long time. you naturally look at china positively. they always do it on boyish it . but the chinese society that all china shown on social media platforms, is not the real china. it's all. think was and it will give young people in taiwan

a wrong impression of china. what a chance as angel pins ha, just come back. china social media influence. some high schools in taiwan have now started offering media literacy courses for students. and a taiwanese government is also taking steps earlier this year. he said china uses 100 of big account to reach every corner of society. taiwan is now planning to launch a task force focusing on chinese cyber warfare. ahead of local taiwan elections in november, but only accusations of media manipulation in cyber warfare. once the 11 year old gen eat, from enjoying in the contents of tick tock, no matter whether they are made by people from taiwan or china.

that report by dw zachary lee in ty pate, and that's it for wednesday. there is more from the region on our website at d, w dot com, forward slash asia, and you can follow us on twitter or facebook as well. thanks for watching and see you tomorrow. with a sex for an operator who wrote her master's thesis on put potato marine to read a not the turn on. well, it gets more ridiculous from there. he doesn't use literature list, read german most recent west making the headlines and what's behind them. dw news africa, the show that was the issues shaping the continent. life is slowly getting back to

normally on the street to give you enough reports on the inside. our correspondence with on the ground reporting from across the continent and all the trend stuff. the mazda u. t. w is africa every friday on d. w. ah, how hard are the pandemic in beijing? 0 coven policy? in the chinese economy. things don't appear to be going well from trade numbers to supply chain figures, all signs point to disruption with global consequences. also on the show german businesses worry about a possible cut off of gastro, russia. after the e, you opens the door to more sanctions on fossil fuels. entry longer grapples with economic crisis. rising food and fuel costs have sparked protests. now the

government says, can't it still walk into the show i'm see convincing. how hard is coven 19 hitting the chinese economy, and trade figures on wednesday, or shedding more light on that question. imports in march fell slightly from the previous year, a mid week domestic demand. the 1st dipping months exports, however, rose by 16 percent. but that's not the full picture. shanghai is the countries financial hub and its biggest port, and it's been a district lockdown for several weeks now. data that's not fully captured in the latest figures. access in shanghai is severely restricted. there have even been shortages of food and other basic necessities of the knock on effects on supply chains around the world will likely hit soon. supply chain data trackers say that volume of goods shipped by sea from shanghai drop by 26 percent between march 12th and april 4th. and that is before the most severe phase of a lockdown kicked in. now from one the chinese.