Palau’s president says China is weaponizing lucrative tourism over his refusal to break Taiwan ties

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing weaponized tourism to the Pacific archipelago of Palau over its allegiance to Taiwan and its accusations that China was behind a major cyberattack there, President Surangel Whipps Jr. told The Associated Press.

Palau, along with Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, is one three Pacific nations to recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy — viewed as a snub by Beijing, which asserts it is part of China. Taipei’s allies in the Pacific have dwindled from six countries in 2019; Nauru abandoned its ties in January.

Whipps told the AP in an interview late Thursday that, in 2020 while he was running for his current post, the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country pledged to flood his tourism-dependent nation of 20,000 people with a million visitors if he capitulated on the country’s stance.

“That continues to be the overture,” he said by phone Thursday. “They say, why are you torturing yourselves? Just join us and the sky’s the limit.”

Whipps refused. “We don’t need a million tourists,” he added. “It’s not always about how much money we get.”

His stance is vanishingly rare amid Pacific island nations — some struggling to sustain themselves and feeling overlooked by Western powers while their backyards are increasingly the settings for some of the world’s most potent contests for influence. Amid intensifying conflict over ocean territory, resources and political sway, Beijing’s pressure on the three hold-out countries was increasing, analysts said.

“As the number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific dwindles, the obstacles to China’s regional diplomacy diminish,” said Mihai Sora, Director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute.

China’s penalties for Palau’s