Go Fund Me freezes legal defence fund for Daniel Suidani

Go Fund Me freezes legal defence fund for Daniel Suidani

The China Democracy Fund Steps into the Breach

For Immediate Release

New York

April 24, 2023

Former Premier Daniel Suidani, who represented his Malaita, Solomon Islands province, was stripped of his Premiership and then his assembly seat through PRC-backed lawfare.  

That included - in a world first for a democratic country - the pro-PRC government of Solomons disqualifying him from his elected seat because he questioned the Chinese Communist Party’s definition of One China.

This was the culmination of an attack on democracy (and, by extension, on pro-democracy leaders like Suidani) that started in September 2019 when, after years of recognizing Taiwan, the Prime Minister of Solomons unilaterally abandoned Taipei in favor of Beijing.  

Since that time, the PRC and its proxies have been actively engaged in fundamental changes to the country’s governance. Some examples:

•  The pro-PRC Solomon Islands government signed a security deal with China that allows for the People’s Liberation Army to deploy on Solomons’ soil – home of the battle of Guadalcanal, where so many died defending freedom in World War II.

•  A PRC slush fund was used to pay off thirty-nine of the fifty members of Parliament - enough to then amend the Constitution and ‘postpone’ the elections that were supposed to be held this year. 

•  The Solomons government announced it would take out a $66 million loan - that it can’t afford - from China to buy and install 161 Huawei communications towers. 

•  Political opposition, civil society groups and the media have been intimidated. 

•  Chinese state companies are embedding in the economy, including a multimillion-dollar contract to upgrade an international port in the capital.

•  China is training and arming Solomons police, including with truck-mounted water canons. 

Daniel Suidani was in New York last week to participate in a United Nations conference on indigenous environmental guardianship and is now in Washington, D.C., where he will meet with the media, think tanks and politicians about the plight of his homeland, which is increasingly becoming a captive nation.   

The China Uncensored organization set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for the trip and for the initial phase of Daniel Suidani’s legal defence against the lawfare. 

 GoFundMe has now frozen those funds.

After consulting with China Uncensored and Daniel Suidani, the China Democracy Fund has started a campaign through its own secure payment system to raise funds to support Daniel Suidani and the brave Solomon Islanders fighting to liberate their country from Chinese transnational repression. 

An anonymous donor has agreed to backstop the organization’s efforts with a US$5,000 pledge to ensure Suidani’s lawyers can proceed to defend him at an upcoming hearing to overturn the baseless motion to remove him from his seat in his home province of Malaita. That person will match the first $1,000 raised by the China Democracy Fund.

For more information or to secure an interview, contact Dean Bxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund. deanb@opibooks.com = +1 647-970 1973