The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei.
The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Taiwan set up a trade mission in Fiji in 1971, which was closed and replaced by the East Asia Trade Center in 1976, a year after China and Fiji established diplomatic relations.
The East Asia Trade Center was renamed the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji in 1988, before Beijing pressured Fiji to change it to the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji in 2018 and to revoke the privileges of Taiwanese diplomats.
Taiwan typically uses the term “Taipei” instead of its official name “Republic of China (Taiwan)” when naming its de facto embassies in most nations, mainly because the host nation adheres to Beijing’s “one China” principle.
After the Fijian general elections in December last year, pro-democratic opposition parties the People’s Alliance Party, the National Federation Party and the Social Democratic Liberal Party formed a coalition and overruled the name change imposed by the former government, Chow said.
The new government acknowledges Taiwan’s contributions in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, medical care and education, which have benefited the people of Fiji since Taiwan established its representative office in 1971, he said.
The ministry thanked Fiji for its decision, adding that Fiji is a like-minded partner in the Pacific region and Taiwan would continue to boost its ties with the nation.
Although China has so far made no comment on the change, “it might react quite aggressively,” Chow said.
Asked whether the move indicates that Fiji has the intention to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, he said that the ministry does not exclude the possibility and it would deliberate on any proposal to expand Fiji’s economic and trade space with Taiwan.
Fiji closed its representative office in Taipei in 2017, reportedly due to a need to make better use of its resources and not because of pressure from China.
A diplomatic source told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the new Fijian government, which is more friendly toward Taiwan, has been in talks to reopen the office in Taipei.
Despite the lack of official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Fijian leaders have visited Taiwan and even spoken up for Taiwan’s international participation on several occasions, CNA cited the source as saying.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS