Taiwan yesterday severed official ties with the Solomon Islands as the South Pacific nation decided to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
The Taipei government also condemned China’s attempts to diminish Taiwan’s international presence and eliminate Taiwanese sovereignty.
“It is absolutely evident that China, through this case, deliberately seeks to influence Taiwan’s upcoming presidential and legislative elections,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a news conference at 6:30pm.
Photo: CNA
“The government strongly condemns China’s attempts to suppress Taiwan and calls on the people of Taiwan to continue to uphold our national sovereignty, champion the principles of freedom and democracy, reach out to the international community and serve as a force for good in the world,” Wu said.
The Solomon Islands’ Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement voted 27-0, with six abstentions, to establish diplomatic ties with China.
The decision was later approved by the Cabinet of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized a report recently submitted by a Solomon Islands cross-party task force to the Sogavare government that recommended the nation sever its ties with Taiwan and switch diplomatic allegiance to China.
Sogavare and his Cabinet made the diplomatic move “based solely on a highly biased, so-called ‘Bipartisan Task Force’ report, which is full of fabrications and blatant misinformation,” the ministry said.
“Taiwan believes that the majority of Solomon Islanders will find the decision unacceptable since it completely lacks credibility,” it added.
At a separate news conference held at 7:30pm, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed regret over the Solomon Islands’ decision and condemned China for “repeatedly using money and political pressure to suppress the Taiwanese people’s international space.”
Tsai said Taiwan would not engage in dollar diplomacy to compete with Beijing, nor yield to China’s bullying aimed at “demoralizing Taiwanese in a bid to force Taiwan to accept its ‘one country, two system’ formula.”
While Wu has tendered his resignation, the Presidential Office quoted Tsai as saying that his resignation is not an issue as all staff at the foreign ministry had put in their best efforts until the last minute and that the severing of ties was due to China’s suppression of Taiwan.
The Solomon Islands is the sixth country to cut ties with Taiwan since Tsai came to office in 2016 — following Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Panama and El Salvador.
The latest development leaves Taiwan with only 16 diplomatic allies.
A government source familiar with the matter said that Beijing invested significant resources to establish relations with the Solomon Islands, not just to pressure Taiwan, but as part of its efforts to extend China’s strategic reach into the “second island chain.”
Pro-Beijing voices have gained momentum across the political divide in the Solomons Island, because China has apparently played both sides of local politics, the source said.
China has expended a tremendous amount of resources to gain a diplomatic foothold in the Solomon Islands due to the archipelago’s potential for air bases and deepwater harbors, which were utilized by the US and Japan during World War II, the source said.
Taiwan could not expect the US or Australia to be of help in shoring up its relations with the Solomon Islands, because Washington has no embassy in that nation, Canberra has an ongoing dispute with the Solomon Islands that has badly damaged bilateral relations and there is a perception in the Solomons that Taiwan likely favored Canberra, the source said.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat