This week, China strongly disagreed with the Pacific Islands Forum’s decision to keep China Taiwan as a development partner. The decision, made after five days of talks in Tonga, confirmed a 1992 deal that let Taiwan join the group.
Qian Bo, China’s special envoy to the Pacific Islands, said he couldn’t believe the choice. He said it was a “mistake” that needed to be fixed. He told reporters that the heads of the bloc’s speech could have shown what the members thought.
Qian called the forum’s secretary right away to try to correct the statement. He argued that the final communiqué should be changed, saying that the text as it was now should not stand.
China has been trying to prevent Taiwan from attending foreign events, even though it attends the meetings as a development partner. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its land and is against any acceptance of Taiwan’s independence. One of China’s main friends in the South Pacific is the Solomon Islands, which backed the move to remove Taiwan’s partner position from the conference. But this move made Taiwan’s final friends in the area very angry.
The Pacific Islands Forum is split into groups of countries that support Beijing and groups that support Taiwan. The Marshall Islands, Palau, and Tuvalu are examples of groups that support Taiwan. Even though Beijing has a say, the forum’s choice favors keeping Taiwan’s position.
Qian pointed out that most of the forum’s 18 members have formal ties with China, which he thought was left out of the final statement from the meeting. Tien Kwang, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, attended the meeting in Tonga to improve ties with the country’s Pacific partners.
When China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs heard about the decision, it said that Taiwan’s attendance at foreign meetings only serves to “deceive themselves and bring shame upon themselves.” Beijing still doesn’t want Taiwan to become known around the world.
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