Beijing pressure on PIF part of attempts to constrain Taipei: U.S.

Washington, Sept. 4 (CNA) The People's Republic of China (PRC) demanding a Pacific Islands forum remove a reference to Taiwan from a communique issued Aug. 30 is consistent with Beijing's continuous efforts to limit Taipei's international participation, a U.S. government spokesperson said Wednesday.

The 18-member Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an inter-governmental organization, held its 53rd summit in Tonga last week. Despite being a nonmember, Taiwan has been an active 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 on Aug. 30, the PIF posted a joint communique on its website which contained a line reaffirming the decades-long arrangements regarding Taiwan.

"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, on the evening of Aug. 30, the communique was removed from the PIF website. 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 PIF Chair and Cook Island's Prime Minister Mark Brown promising China's Ambassador to the Pacific, Qian Bo (錢波), "We'll remove it," referring to the mentioning 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 PIF website, according to a Radio New Zealand report on Sept. 3.

Asked to comment on the incident, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told CNA in an email response on Wednesday that Washington has been "tracking reports of changes in the Pacific Islands Forum 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 email said.

The unnamed spokesperson praised Taiwan as 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," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, despite the incident, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has said removing the line supporting Taiwan in the communique will not affect Taiwan's status in the PIF or its right to future participation.

Asked about the incident during a Tuesday press event in Taipei, Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang (田中光), who led a delegation to attend a PIF summit side event last week, said he believed the removed 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 in favor of Beijing in 2019, proposed preventing Taiwan from attending future PIF events, allegedly due to China's instructions, according to a MOFA press release.

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

Tien said at Tuesday's press event that it is expected Taiwan will face some "difficulties and obstacles" next year when the Solomon Islands hosts the PIF summit, without elaborating.

However, he stressed that Taiwan, a PIF partner for 29 years, will continue to do its best to participate in the Pacific Islands organization.