US criticizes Chinese censorship at Pacific forum

LITTLE EFFECT?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that removing wording in support of Taiwan would not affect the nation’s status in the organization

• Staff writer, with CNA, WASHINGTON

China’s demand that the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) remove a reference to Taiwan from a communique issued on Friday last week is consistent with Beijing’s efforts to limit Taipei’s international participation, a US government spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The 18-member inter-governmental organization held its 53rd summit in Tonga last week. Despite being a nonmember, Taiwan has been a participant as a “development partner” at the annual event since 1993. Taiwan’s status was established based on a 1992 PIF Leaders’ Communique and was reaffirmed in 1999 and 2010.

When the forum wrapped up, the PIF posted a joint communique on its Web site that contained a line reaffirming the decades-long arrangements regarding Taiwan.

Photo: Reuters

“Leaders at the forum reaffirmed the 1992 leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China,” the PIF was quoted as saying in paragraph 66 of the communique.

However, later in the day, the communique was removed from the Web site. It was republished the next day, but paragraph 66 about Taiwan is no longer included.

Before the Taiwan reference was removed, New Zealand media participating in the summit reported witnessing Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, the PIF chairman, promising Chinese Ambassador to the Pacific Qian Bo (錢波) that “we’ll remove it,” referring to the mention of Taiwan in the communique.

Qian told journalists that the reference to Taiwan “must be a mistake” and “must be corrected.”

Soon after, the document was taken down from the Web site, Radio New Zealand reported on Tuesday.

A US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mailed response on Wednesday that Washington has been “tracking reports of changes in the forum’s communique to remove references to Taiwan.”

“The PRC’s efforts to pressure Pacific Island countries to remove this reference fit a pattern of PRC coercion to constrain Taiwan’s international position,” the e-mail said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

The spokesperson wrote that Taiwan is a “highly capable, engaged, democratic and responsible member of the global community.”

“We all stand to benefit from Taiwan’s expertise to address some of today’s most difficult global challenges, and we will continue to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations,” they added.

Despite the incident, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that removing the line supporting Taiwan would not affect the nation’s status in the organization or its right to participation.

Asked about the incident during a news conference in Taipei on Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光), who led a delegation to attend a PIF summit side event last week, said he believed the removed portion of the communique was in fact “a draft version and was posted online before it was cleared to be made public.”

The reference to Taiwan only reiterated the 1992 decision, but China still could not accept it and “unreasonably” asked the PIF to remove the paragraph, Tien said.

Also during this year’s summit, the Solomon Islands, a former Taiwan ally that ditched Taipei for Beijing in 2019, proposed preventing Taiwan from attending future PIF events, allegedly on China’s instructions, the ministry said in a press release.

The proposal was later rejected thanks to the support of Taiwan’s three allies in the PIF — the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — as well as Australia and New Zealand, the ministry said.

It is expected that Taiwan would face some “difficulties and obstacles” next year when the Solomon Islands hosts the PIF summit, Tien said on Tuesday, without elaborating.

However, Taiwan, a PIF partner for 29 years, would continue to do its best to participate in the organization, he added.