Pacific leaders pose for a group photo during their 2024 meeting in Tonga. Source: Facebook page of PM Press of Tonga
The communique of the 2024 meeting of leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) was amended after a Chinese diplomat pointed out that the inclusion of “Taiwan” in the document was a “mistake.”
The PIF is composed of 18 members and holds an annual meeting attended by heads of states across the Pacific. Three members of PIF continue to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan: The Marshall Islands, Palau, and Tuvalu.
The annual PIF meetings are also attended by “dialogue partners” such as China, the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Union. Taiwan has been participating in the event as a “development partner” since 1993.
After being defeated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the Chinese civil war in 1949, the ruling Kuomintang Party of Republic of China (ROC), escaped to Taiwan and established the exiled government there. The ROC was the representative of China in the United Nations until 1971. In recent years, China has ramped up diplomatic pressure by forcing other countries and international organizations to cut ties with Taiwan.
This year’s PIF meeting was held in Tonga, guided by the theme of “reaffirming the importance of integrated resilience,” especially in the areas of climate change and environmental degradation. For several days, the PIF became a venue for participants to articulate their commitment to work together to address the challenges posed by climate change in the region and the need to develop regional cooperation in developing a stronger and sustainable economy.
China's Ambassador to the Pacific, Qian Bo, was able to speak at the meeting where he declared his country’s adherence “to the path of peaceful development” while “advocating an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.” The diplomat also enumerated China’s Belt and Road landmark projects in the region.
Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Tien Chung-kwang, also traveled to Tonga but only met their three allies in the region. His visit was also closely monitored by China.
“Any attempt by the Taiwan authorities to brush up their sense of presence by rubbing shoulders with the forum can only be self-deceptive,” said China's foreign ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
Taiwan’s status as a development partner was initially mentioned in the PIF communique released on August 30th. Section 66 of the communique states the following:
Relations with Taiwan/Republic of China: 66. Leaders reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China.
Chinese Ambassador Qian Bo immediately protested and asserted that this section was a “surprising mistake” that needed to be corrected.
“The key issue is the fact that Taiwan is part of China, and Taiwan will certainly not be the development dialogue partner for the PIF,” he added.
Later, the PIF uploaded a new document on its website without any reference to Taiwan. This tweet compares the two documents:
Line affirming Taiwan's status in the Pacific Islands Forum has been entirely removed from the latest version of the Communique (originally released yesterday), after China's Ambassador to the Pacific Qian Bo demanded the PIF to “correct” the “surprising mistake”. pic.twitter.com/erkTaDwHBf
— Sophie Mak (@SophieMak1) August 30, 2024
The former PIF chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, was heard reassuring the Chinese diplomat about removing something.
“We’ll remove it,” China/Taiwan PIF communique bungle caught on camera.@stephendziedzic @TNCPacific @kelvinfiji https://t.co/9sWeLGHG8a pic.twitter.com/Iy1S1RRvpi
— Lydia Lewis (@LydiaLewisRNZ) September 1, 2024
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized China's “intervention” on the matter.
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.
Asked by the media, Massey University associate professor in security studies Anna Powles noted that the issue reflects China’s intent to wield stronger influence in the region.
China’s ability to successfully pressure the Forum to remove Section 66 is a clear wedge strategy with the intention to disrupt and divide.
It sends a clear message to the Forum and Taiwan’s remaining Pacific allies that China wields significant influence at the potential expense of regional unity.
Kiribati's Education Minister Alexander Teabo, who was also in Tonga, expressed disappointment over the mistake. He also bemoaned that the Taiwan-China issue is being pushed as an agenda in the PIF. “Taiwan and China have their own internal politics…and now pushing it into the forum, we think that it is going to be sort of trying to push their way into our forum family,” he said in a media interview.
Journalist Stephen Dziedzic advised the PIF secretariat to properly explain the snafu over the communique because otherwise, “it leaves a troubling impression it simply caved to pressure from the PRC [China].”
Despite the incident, the Taiwanese government insisted that its status remains unchanged and that it even signed a cooperation agreement with the PIF to support the latter’s secretariat work until 2027.
Solomon Islands, which had diplomatic relations with Taiwan until 2019, proposed a re-evaluation of Taiwan as a “development partner” but this was not pursued by PIF participants. The Solomon Islands will host the PIF meeting next year.
