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.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS