Written by Staff Writer at CNN
Three burned bodies have been found in the town of Pagaita in Solomon Islands’ Chinatown district, the Solomon Islands police commissioner says.
Authorities say three other people remain missing.
On August 29, anti-immigration protesters broke into Chinatown’s Terna shopping center, destroying buildings and causing destruction in the ethnic Chinese community, the New Zealand Herald reported .
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Activists, many with machetes, marched in Nadi on August 29 in response to anti-Chinese violence. AP Photo/Vincent Thian
The attack has been blamed on native landowners angry at immigration. It followed a number of fatal attacks on ethnic Chinese farmers and fishermen in the contested Papuan zone of West Papua province, a former Dutch colony.
Boat boat crashes into another near Nadi airport in Kaikoura on the North Island of New Zealand August 30. AP Photo/Lukas Coch
The government has been in discussions with China on sending overseas workers to help with the post-snowstorm clean-up and agriculture in the wake of the January 2017 storm, the ABC said.
In Australia, Chinese residents believe immigrants are buying up their land
Speaking at a National Press Club event in July, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the root cause of the problem was Chinese immigration.
“We face a genuine epidemic of violent crime committed by Chinese, Chinese-speakers. There’s no reason that migrants from other parts of the world can’t do that, but the Chinese are just putting one foot in front of the other and they’re clearly going to purchase the farms and turn them into property,” he said.
Drywall building inside Kaikoura’s Honemaker River Resort. China is facing competition for workers from Australian farmers and businesspeople. Matthew Leutwyler/Union NZ via AP
A former New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, told the Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was “absolutely right” about Chinese immigrants and their ability to work in New Zealand.
“Immigration levels are high now in New Zealand as indeed they are around the world. Australia in particular has a very large, very wealthy, very educated migrant population who comes here to work and to make a contribution, and also lives in our suburbs and out our rural areas,” Clark said.
“I am absolutely clear that the areas of greatest concern and the areas of real pressure are Auckland and Nelson, places where immigration has certainly helped to support our population growth and particularly in terms of investment in land for housing.”