Taiwan would never treat allied nations the way China does, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday after photographs showing Chinese Ambassador to Kiribati Tang Songgen (唐松根) walking over the backs of local children welcoming him to Marakei Island sparked worldwide criticism.
The pictures showed about 30 people lying on the ground as part of a ceremony this month to welcome the Chinese ambassador.
Kiribati switched recognition from Beijing to Taipei in 2003, but it switched back to Beijing in September last year.
Photo taken from the Twitter account of journalist Michael Field
The unusual diplomatic welcome has sparked criticism from Western politicians, with observers saying that the image is a manifestation of the rising influence of China’s colonialism in the Pacific region and an irony when juxtaposed with Kirabati’s national anthem, Teirake Kaini Kiribati, which means “Stand up Kiribati.”
“I simply cannot imagine any scenario in which walking on the backs of children is acceptable behavior by an ambassador of any country (or any adult for that matter!)” Constantine Panayiotou, the US defense attache to five Pacific island nations, including Kiribati, wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
“I’d be very surprised if an Australian representative participated in such a ceremony of this nature,” said Australian parliamentarian Dave Sharma, a former diplomat to Australia’s mission in Papua New Guinea.
Kiribati netizens and experts said that the practice is part of a traditional welcome ceremony and urged outsiders not to make subjective interpretations.
Speaking at a regular news briefing in Taipei yesterday, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that the image is not the Kiribati that Taiwan knew and that Taiwanese diplomats have never seen a ceremony of that kind.
The ministry believes that “the world will make fair assessments” as to how China treats its new ally Kiribati, she said.
Meanwhile, Ou criticized the so-called “one Somalia” principle that was presented in a statement by the Somalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, after Taiwan’s representative office in Somaliland, a self-declared state in east Africa, officially opened in Hargeisa on Monday.
“The Federal Government of Somalia condemns Taiwan’s reckless attempts to infringe on the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia and violate its territorial integrity,” the statement said. “The Federal Government of Somalia repudiates such misguided endeavors that seek to sow discord and division among our people.”
It called on Taiwan to “cease its misinformed ventures into any part of the territory of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”
“These principles are non-negotiable,” it said.
Ou said it appeared that China coerced the government of Somalia to issue the statement.
The so-called “one Somalia” principle is as ridiculous as the so-called “one China” principle, she said.
Somalia and Somaliland are two separate nations and the latter has held three presidential elections since it became independent in 1991, she said.
The ties between Taiwan and Somaliland are based on the shared values of freedom and democracy, Ou said, adding that the Chinese and Somalian governments have no right to interfere with Taiwan’s interactions with other nations.
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