A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.”
After five days of talks in Tonga, a “cleared” communique was released on Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). However, the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document.
The forum reissued the communique without explanation yesterday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc’s “relations with Taiwan.”
Photo: AFP
“It must be a mistake. It must be a mistake,” Chinese Special Envoy for Pacific Island Countries Affairs Qian Bo (錢波) said on Friday. “This is a surprising mistake made by someone. I’m not sure, but I think it must be corrected.”
Qian earlier said he had contacted the bloc’s secretariat in the hope of clarifying the situation.
“This should not be the final communique, there must be a correction on the text,” he said.
The original paragraph — titled “Relations with Taiwan/Republic of China” — said leaders had “reaffirmed” the 1992 decision that paved the way for Taiwan’s participation in the forum. Beijing has aggressively sought to exclude Taiwan from international bodies and rejects its autonomy. The Solomon Islands, China’s main partner in the South Pacific, has lobbied for Taiwan to be stripped of its “development partner” status with the PIF.
A spokesperson from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday said that there had not been a consensus on the paragraph in question.
“There are a range of views among the 18 Pacific Islands Forum members and part of the Pacific way is respect for different views and the importance of consensus,” the spokesperson added in a statement.
A PIF spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed anger at China’s actions.
“Taiwan condemns China’s rude and unreasonable intervention and irrational behavior that undermines regional peace and stability and calls on all like-minded countries to pay close attention to China’s actions,” it said in a statement.
However, the ministry also said that the joint communique as published did not undermine Taiwan’s status at the forum nor preclude it from participating in the future.
The South Pacific was once seen as a bastion of support for Taiwan’s claim to statehood, but China has methodically whittled this down.
In the past five years, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all been persuaded to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Beijing insists its diplomatic allies withdraw recognition of Taiwan.
Palau, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei, but face constant pressure to change.
US territories Guam and American Samoa were also elevated to associate members of the forum, against the wishes of the Solomon Islands.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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