Pacific leaders’ summit erases mention of Taiwan after Chinese anger, fracturing a shaky accord

NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) — Turmoil over China’s push for influence in the South Pacific has overshadowed the region’s most important diplomatic summit after a Pacific island leader apparently pledged to erase an affirmation of Taiwan’s involvement in the meeting from its closing statement, at Beijing’s behest.

The Pacific Islands Forum — a group of 18 island nations, plus Australia and New Zealand — initially included a reassertion of the standing of self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, in a public communique Friday outlining leaders’ agreements after their weeklong annual meeting. But it was then removed on Saturday.

Officials at the summit in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, did not explain why the statement had changed. But video posted by a news outlet late on Sunday appeared to show a Pacific leader assuring China’s special envoy to the Pacific, Qian Bo, that the reference to Taiwan would be removed after Qian demanded it in remarks to reporters.

The document row highlights a fraught, largely private regional debate about China’s role in the region that Pacific nations had sought to publicly quash ahead of the meeting. The chaotic end to the annual summit — at which member nations had emphasized regional unity and rejected major powers’ jostling for influence in their affairs — shows how difficult it is for some of the world’s tiniest nations to balance the demands of larger countries who see them as geopolitical pawns, analysts said.

“The ability of the (forum) to pursue increasingly demanding regional agendas… and at the same time manage the geopolitical interests of external actors is clearly at risk,” said Anna Powles, a professor at Massey University’s Center for Defense and Security Studies.

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