China demands Pacific nations roll back ‘erroneous’ Taiwan participation

China has pushed back at claims it is interfering in the Pacific Islands Forum even as it demands retrospective changes to a 33-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to attend the region’s most important political summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

China has demanded Pacific Island nations amend what it says is an “erroneous” 33-year-old communique recognising Taiwan’s right to participate in the region’s most important annual forum, raising the geopolitical stakes in what is shaping up to be a contentious leaders’ summit next month.

An extraordinary statement released on Tuesday by the Chinese embassy in Tonga forcefully rejects claims of Beijing interference in the Pacific Islands Forum as “misinformation”, even as it pushes for the bloc to amend a 1992 communique declaring Taiwan a Pacific Island Forum development partner with participation rights.

“The Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communique violated the One China principle in the first place,” the statement posted on the Chinese embassy’s social media account on Tuesday reads.

This year’s Pacific Island Forum summit will be hosted by the Solomon Islands, a nation that has grown increasingly close to Beijing, in September. Picture: AFP

“Now more than 30 years later, China has established diplomatic relations with 11 of the 14 PICs (Pacific Island countries), and all these countries firmly adhere to the One China principle and clearly support China’s reunification,” it adds, referring to Beijing’s assertion that Taiwan is an “inalienable part of China. It is now time to correct the erroneous Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communique.”

The embassy statement cites as a precedent for its demands a highly controversial decision by Forum leaders last year to delete a reference to Taiwan - under pressure from China’s Special Envoy to the Pacific - from the final summit communique.

China’s relentless push to dismantle all support for Taiwan in the region and have it excluded from the Pacific Island Forum summit prompted the Solomon Islands, this year’s host and a nation that has grown increasingly close to Beijing, to announce last month that both countries would be excluded from the September meeting in Honiara.

Solomons Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has since controversially expanded that decision to exclude all 21 Pacific Island Forum dialogue partners - including the UK, US, EU, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia - sparking mass frustration and accusations that China is seeking to interfere with Pacific regionalism and splinter the bloc.

The move was clearly intended to pacify those countries that still recognise Taiwan - Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu - while also meeting China’s demands, but has pleased almost no one.

Australia and New Zealand - both full PIF member states who cannot be barred from next month’s summit - Fiji, PNG, Tuvalu and the Republic of Marshall Islands have all raised concerns over the decision.

“We want all dialogue partners to be there. We think that’s important,” NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said this week.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Prime Minister of Tuvalu Feleti Teo at Parliament House in Canberra in July. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo has threatened to boycott the summit over the exclusions, and in a recent interview speculated that China was behind the decision to block partners from the forum.

“There is no denying that China is trying to extend its footprint in the Pacific and so is the US,” Mr Teo told The Guardian.

Whether China sees the mass exclusion as a win is difficult to tell though its latest statement insists it gains nothing from being excluded.

While China’s Pacific presence and interest has grown exponentially in recent years, Anna Powles, associate professor of security studies at New Zealand’s Massey University, says Beijing’s latest demand is unlikely to be well received, even by nations firmly within Beijing’s camp.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how PIF members react to this latest statement by China that they should amend a collectively agreed declaration, and by extension the regional architecture,” Dr Powles told The Australian.

“I think China has overstepped the mark by calling for a change to an earlier Pacific Island forum declaration that would have been agreed to by leaders at the time. People in the region may find that quite unacceptable.”

China’s demand comes as Pacific Island nations have been discussing ways to better manage the intense and growing interest in the region by dividing partners into two tiers.

Many had hoped that process - aimed at preserving Pacific unity - would be finalised in Honiara, though Beijing’s latest diktat may have complicated that process.