The president of Kiribati yesterday expressed concern over the presence of Chinese officials in his South Pacific nation, saying he feared they could be trying to influence a change of government.
President Anote Tong's government switched diplomatic allegiance from Beijing to Taipei after coming to power in November last year, forcing China to close a satellite-monitoring base on the main atoll of Tarawa.
Three Chinese diplomats remain as caretakers of embassy facilities, however, which has made the government nervous.
Tong said he believed China was behind an unprecedented demonstration staged to protest against Kiribati's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Beijing.
"We are watching out at the political environment here because they did participate in the last process," Tong said. "They continue to hope there will be a reversal of the situation, a change of government I guess."
Tong said in a telephone interview he presumed the continued presence of the Chinese diplomats was based on Beijing's hope for a change of government.
"We will be reviewing the situation because we are interested to as to what their continued presence means and it would only suggest that they are hoping one day to be able to come back," he said.
Asked if the government would expel the diplomats, Tong said: "It might be a possibility, I think we have to keep an eye out on their real role, the role they are playing in staying back."
"We are a small country [compared] with a big country like that, and we are a little nervous. I think we ought to be given the opportunity of not being manipulated into any situations."
Tong said the embassy had imported "large amounts of cargo, container loads." He did not know what was in them or the quantity.
"So we ask why are three people caretaking the embassy building [requiring] that amount of goods?" he said.
The Chinese Embassy telephone number was unanswered yesterday
Kiribati, which was formerly known as the Gilbert Islands, is made up of 33 atolls and one high island with a combined land area of 811km2.
Last year its 100,000 people were drawn into a protracted political battle which saw then-president Teburoro Tito lose office after six years with Tong taking over.
During the election process then Chinese ambassador Shuxue Ma (
Although remote, Kiribati's position on the Equator makes it attractive for the aerospace industry.
The giant Sealaunch Boeing led consortium launch satellites from a converted oil rig near Kiribati, while Japan's National Space Development Agency planned to build a space station on an isolated atoll.
Tarawa is around 1,000km south of the US Army missile-testing base at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, which is used for testing ballistic missiles fired from California and developing missile-defense systems.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS