By Jayvee Vallejera
This early, Taiwan is readying itself to fight for the right to be at the next Leaders’ Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in the Solomon Islands.
Taiwan, which has a “development partner” status at the Forum, is allowed to send a delegation to the meetings. However, it expects pushback from China next year, when the meeting will be held in the Solomon Islands in September 2025.
The Solomon Islands, which switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 2019, has been lobbying the Forum to strip Taiwan of its “development partner” status.
Shawn Hugh Yang, deputy director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office on Guam, said China might once again intensify its efforts to suppress Taiwan’s participation in next year’s PIF leaders’ summit.
Yang said Taiwan will closely collaborate with its allies in the region, including Palau, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, as well as like-minded countries, to defend its legal position and rights to participate in the Forum.
This was Taiwan’s game plan at this year’s Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Tonga, where it learned even before the meeting that China might pressure Tonga to deny issuing visas to prevent the Taiwan delegation from attending the summit and try to persuade leaders of certain countries to exclude Taiwan’s future participation in the regional bloc.
Taiwan has 12 remaining formal diplomatic allies. Nauru was the latest Pacific nation to switch to Beijing this year.
Yang said the Taiwan delegation developed response strategies for different scenarios in advance, requesting support from three Pacific allies and other Forum member-countries, such as Australia and New Zealand.
A joint declaration issued by Pacific leaders, which initially reiterated Taiwan’s 30-year relationship with the Pacific bloc, was amended—after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected”—deleting any mention of the Forum’s relations with Taiwan.
Yang said the revised joint statement was eventually released in the “interest of harmony,” but he pointed out that it did not jeopardize Taiwan’s status in the Forum nor exclude Taiwan from the right to participate in future meetings.
“The case once again shows China's consistent disregard for the rules-based international order, often resorting to political and economic coercion through wolf-warrior diplomacy and gray zone strategies,” Yang said. “These aggressive tactics are solely aimed at achieving political objectives, making China a disruptor and troublemaker of regional harmony.”
The next Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting will be held in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Sept. 8 to 12, 2025.
With China's anti-Taiwan rhetoric and other hostile actions in the region, is there any reason to be worried? Yang said China’s actions now constitute a global security threat.
He said China continues to provoke Taiwan with the aim of annexing it and undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, and that it has never renounced its ambition to annex Taiwan.
China has been increasing its pressure on Taiwan in a number of ways, such as staging drills around Taiwan, imposing economic coercion and diplomatic suppression.
In one recent instance, Yang said China misrepresented UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 in the international arena, conflating the resolution with its “one-China principle” in an attempt to eliminate Taiwan’s international presence.
China has intensified its military harassment of Taiwan, unilaterally undermining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region, Yang said.
This year, Chinese military aircraft intruded into the airspace around Taiwan for over 250 days, making 3,600 sorties. China’s coast guard vessels have also made frequent incursions into the waters around Taiwan.
Yang said China’s expansionist ambitions do not stop with Taiwan. “Its intent is to annex Taiwan in order to dominate the international community with the goal of spreading authoritarianism globally and achieving its dream of the so-called ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,’” Yang said.
He warned that if China were to gain control over Taiwan, it would pave the way for expansion of authoritarianism into the Indo-Pacific region and the world, establishing a new international order that serves China’s interests.
“This would enable China to dominate the international community and realize Xi Jinping’s dream of the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.’ Free democracies must collectively monitor events so as to prevent this outcome,” Yang said.
To shore up its support from the Pacific region, Taiwan has been hard at work building its solidarity and friendship with its three Pacific allies. In mid-May 2024, President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands, President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. of Palau and Prime Minister Feleti Penitala Teo of Tuvalu visited Taiwan for the inauguration ceremony of its 16th president and vice president.
In mid-October, Teo, along with Tuvalu Foreign Minister Paulson Panapa and Palau Special Envoy and Secretary of State Gustav N. Aitaro also visited Taiwan for its National Day celebrations. Other recent Taiwan visitors included Speaker of the Marshall Islands Brenson Wase, Minister of Education Joe Bejang and Tuvalu Speaker Iakoba Taeia Italeli.
Yang said Taiwan advocates for mutual high-level official visits with its diplomatic allies. Also, Taiwan cultivates beneficial cooperation with its allies through various field exchanges.
That largely aligns with Taiwan’s comprehensive diplomatic strategy, which is based on three pillars: value-based diplomacy, alliance diplomacy and economic and trade diplomacy.
“The key aspect of this strategy is exporting Taiwan’s expertise to allied and friendly nations and to counter economic coercion from China,” he added.
At the same time, he said, Taiwan continues to strengthen partnerships with countries, such as the United States, Japan and European nations, through invitations, dialogues and exchanges. This mix of diplomatic outreach safeguards Taiwan’s rights and interests of its membership in international organizations, Yang said.
Besides the diplomatic channel, Taiwan engages in massive public relations campaign through media familiarization tours.
Yang said Taiwan focused on "value diplomacy," "alliance diplomacy" and "economic diplomacy" to deepen cooperation and strengthen relations with like-minded countries, such as the U.S., Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the EU. That shifts focus on what Taiwan calls "Economic Sun Never Sets Country." He said Taiwan will leverage its strengths in knowledge, services and intelligent solutions to assist local Taiwan businesses.
As one of the world's leading semiconductor suppliers, Taiwan is also banking on what it calls the semiconductor "silicon shield." With Taiwan's semiconductor industry producing 65 percent of the world's chips and 92 percent of advanced process chips, an all-out war in the region would disrupt global supply chains, making it in the best interest of other nations not to upset that system.
Yang said Taiwan will collaborate with the U.S., Japan and Germany under the concept of “Taiwan's participation, creating a win-win for the world” to strengthen supply chain resilience.
He said Taiwan will also cooperate with allied nations to promote the "Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project," leveraging its expertise in the semiconductor and IT industries.
“Taiwan will continue to enhance its semiconductor industry advantages while collaborating with like-minded countries to cultivate talent, develop new technologies, and contribute to the global semiconductor supply chain's stability and prosperity,” he said.
Additionally, Taiwan will strive for a net-zero transition, realizing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and the PIF's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, he added.
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