The United States needs to compete with China to gain more influence in the Solomon Islands, according to Indo-Pacific expert Cleo Paskal. “They are an essential strategic territory that you [the U.S.] need to be able to control or at least have access to, if you’re going to … contain China in this case,” Paskal told EpochTV’s “China Insider” program. Paskal further noted that given the Solomon Islands’ proximity to U.S. territory Guam and Hawaii, which lie 1,900 miles northwest and 3,500 miles northeast respectively, if the archipelago is lost to China, it would offer the regime an open pathway to Hawaii in case of a future war between the two countries. The analyst’s warning has taken a new urgency this week after a draft security deal between China and the Solomon Islands was leaked, an agreement that could pave the way for Beijing to set up a military base …