Taiwan yesterday lost a second diplomatic ally in a week after Kiribati decided to switch recognition to China.
Taiwan “regrets and strongly condemns” Kiribati for disregarding the years of assistance and friendship that Taipei had extended to Tarawa, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a news conference at 1pm yesterday, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a formal notice of the termination of relations from Kiribati at about 11am.
The government “hereby declares that it is terminating diplomatic relations with the Republic of Kiribati effective immediately, ending all bilateral cooperative projects and recalling the staff of its embassy, technical mission and medical mission stationed in Kiribati,” Wu said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The Solomon Islands cut ties with Taipei on Monday, making Kiribati the seventh to switch allegiance to Beijing since 2016, following Sao Tome and Principe, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, and El Salvador.
Taiwan now has only 15 diplomatic partners, including four in the Pacific.
Kiribati had demanded that Taiwan help it acquire airplanes for “commercial purposes,” which is not consistent with the spirit of the International Cooperation and Development Act (國際合作發展法), which aims to develop public infrastructure, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
Taipei’s proposed program to obtain the aircraft under a commercial loan was rejected, while Beijing promised to offer Tarawa several civilian aircraft and commercial ferries, he said.
Since taking office in 2016, Kiribatian President Taneti Mamau and some members of his ruling Tobwaan Kiribati Party have engaged in frequent exchanges with China, Wu said, adding that Beijing has used fisheries and other commercial investments to extend its presence in the Pacific country.
Beijing’s campaign to push Taiwan’s allies to sever formal relations aims to suppress the nation’s international presence and force Taiwanese to accept China’s “one country, two systems” framework, he said.
Asked if the government has a strategy to “stop the bleeding,” Wu said that the ministry has required overseas officials to maintain close communications with local officials at each allied nation.
Despite some “minor signs” of crisis in the four remaining Pacific allies — Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands — their ties with Taiwan “are nothing to worry about,” he said.
The government has not yet discussed whether to adjust overall foreign policy, Wu said, adding that informal relations with other countries are also crucial for Taiwan.
Presidential Office spokesman Ting Yun-kung (丁允恭) later yesterday confirmed that Wu had asked President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to take disciplinary action, but added that Tsai has asked Wu to stay in his position, as China’s actions are clearly to blame for Taiwan’s diplomatic setbacks.
“China has chosen this time to strike a series of blows against Taiwan, because only slightly more than 100 days remain until the presidential election,” Tsai said, adding that Taiwan would never accept the “one country, two systems” formula.
Kiribati has made a big mistake by leaving as sincere a friend as Taiwan to become China’s pawn, she added.
Separately yesterday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) expressed disappointment over Kiribati’s decision to abandon its ties with Taipei, saying that Taiwan is a democratic success story, a reliable partner and a force for good in the world.
“We continue to express concerns with China’s campaign to pressure countries to discontinue ties with Taiwan. We continue to have an interest in cross-strait peace and stability,” the AIT said in a statement.
Additional reporting by agencies
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has