by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has altered its final communique to remove a reference to Taiwan, after a senior Chinese diplomat publicly criticized the document. Organizers have blamed the wording on an error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group of 18 island nations, along with Australia and New Zealand, convened in Tonga last week. The initial version of the joint statement released early on Friday included a paragraph that \u201creaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan\/Republic of China,\u201d<\/em> which allows Taipei to have representation at meetings as a \u201cdevelopment partner.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n China, which has the higher status of a \u201cdialogue partner\u201d<\/em> at the PIF, considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and opposes any statements that it perceives as elevating the self-governed island on the world stage. Beijing\u2019s ambassador to the Pacific, Qian Bo, lashed out at the wording, calling it \u201ca surprising mistake\u201d<\/em> that \u201cmust be corrected.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His call was apparently heeded, as the PIF secretariat removed the document from the forum\u2019s website and replaced it with a new version, in which the relevant paragraph was deleted in its entirety. A spokesperson for the organization blamed an error for the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe version as finalized does not change nor impact the decisions of the meeting, nor any standing decisions of the forum leaders,\u201d<\/em> the statement said. \u201cThe communique is a consensus-based document, reflecting the agreed decisions and views of all [members].\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nations in the PIF have conflicting stances on Taiwan\u2019s status. Three \u2013 Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu \u2013 have diplomatic ties with Taipei, while 15 take the side of Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan\u2019s de facto autonomy stems from the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, during which nationalist forces retreated to the island, while the communists took control of the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taipei has condemned the PIF\u2019s alteration of the language, accusing Beijing of making a \u201crude and unreasonable intervention\u201d<\/em> and \u201cirrational behavior.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kiribati Education Minister Alexander Teabo, who headed his nation\u2019s delegation at the summit, lamented that the issue had marred the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTaiwan and China have their own internal politics\u2026 and now pushing it into the forum,\u201d<\/em> he told Radio New Zealand (RNZ).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has altered its final communique to remove a reference to Taiwan, after a senior Chinese diplomat publicly criticized the document. Organizers have blamed the wording on an error. The group of 18 island nations, along with Australia and New Zealand, convened in Tonga last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pacific-islands-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}