Why Australia and the US care so much about China's security pact with a tiny Pacific island nation

When China announced it had inked a security pact with a tiny Pacific island nation this week, there was little fanfare -- at least from Beijing. As China put it, it was a mutually beneficial agreement aimed at creating peace and stability in the Solomon Islands, a country with a population less than half the size of Manhattan that was rocked by violent protests last year.But other countries saw