The decision to restore the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji to its former name, which includes the word Taiwan, was reversed due to pressure from China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
Fiji on March 24 issued a note verbale to the office, saying that its name was changed to “Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji,” retroactively effective from March 15.
However, “under peremptory pressure from China,” the government of Fiji changed the name of the office back to the “Taipei Trade Office in Fiji,” the ministry said in a news release.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The ministry “fiercely condemns China’s actions of suppressing Taiwan and belittling its sovereign status in the international arena again,” it said.
The Chinese embassy in Fiji protested the initial name change and threatened to take retaliatory measures, the ministry said.
Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) exerted pressure on Fiji when he visited the country in April, it said.
The Fijian government succumbed to Chinese pressure after discussing the issue in several Cabinet meetings, it said, calling it “deeply regretful.”
Taiwan has been promoting exchanges and cooperation in agriculture and fisheries, healthcare, education and talent cultivation in Fiji, benefiting Fijians with concrete projects since the office was launched in 1971, the ministry said.
Adhering to the values of freedom and democracy, Taiwan would continue to “share successful experiences with countries in the Pacific region, work together to maintain regional peace and stability, and strive for Taiwan’s due international status,” the ministry added.
Beijing previously pressured Fiji to change the office’s name to the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji in 2018.
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 a “one China” policy.
Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has since December last year been seeking to alter his predecessor’s pro-China approach since taking over from former Fijian prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who was in office for 16 years.
Rabuka in January announced that his government would end a police training and exchange agreement with China.
The agreement “hangs in the balance,” as the Chinese embassy said it cannot understand why the deal cannot be continued, local media FBC News reported on Tuesday.
Whether Fiji can unilaterally terminate the agreement remains to be seen.
Additional reporting by CNA
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led