The mention of Taiwan was removed from the final statement after China objected
The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has changed its final communique to take out a mention of Taiwan, after a senior Chinese diplomat publicly criticized the document. Organizers have blamed the wording on a mistake.
The group of 18 island nations, along with Australia and New Zealand, met in Tonga last week. The initial version of the joint statement released early on Friday included a paragraph that “reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China,” which allows Taipei to have representation at meetings as a “development partner.”
China, which has the higher status of a “dialogue partner” at the PIF, considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and opposes any statements that it sees as elevating the self-governed island on the world stage. Beijing’s ambassador to the Pacific, Qian Bo, criticized the wording, calling it “a surprising mistake” that “must be corrected.”
His request was apparently followed, as the PIF secretariat removed the document from the forum’s website and replaced it with a new version, in which the relevant paragraph was deleted entirely. A spokesperson for the organization blamed an error for the incident.
“The version as finalized does not change nor impact the decisions of the meeting, nor any standing decisions of the forum leaders,” the statement said. “The communique is a consensus-based document, reflecting the agreed decisions and views of all [members].”
Nations in the PIF have different opinions on Taiwan’s status. Three – Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu – have diplomatic ties with Taipei, while 15 support Beijing.
Taiwan’s de facto autonomy comes from the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, during which nationalist forces retreated to the island, while the communists took control of the mainland.
Taipei has condemned the PIF’s alteration of the language, accusing Beijing of making a “rude and unreasonable intervention” and “irrational behavior.”
Kiribati Education Minister Alexander Teabo, who led his nation’s delegation at the summit, said that the issue had damaged the event.
“Taiwan and China have their own internal politics… and now pushing it into the forum,” he told Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
“We’ll remove it,” China/Taiwan PIF communique bungle caught on camera.
— Lydia Lewis (@LydiaLewisRNZ)
The communique incident was partially caused by a short video, filmed by a reporter for RNZ on the sidelines of the summit, in which Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told Qian: “We’ll remove it,” apparently referring to the Taiwan paragraph.