At the opening ceremony of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Palau on Sunday, China’s Pacific envoy, Qian Bo, spoke with the media and threatened there would be ‘consequences’ from Taiwan’s presence.
Qian said he’d make very clear China’s strong objection in his official remarks at the forum’s session with its dialogue partners, including Australia and the United States.
Well, that didn’t happen.
Qian’s brief statement to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders made no mention of Taiwan. There was just a brief perfunctory statement that there was only one China. It was muted, almost timid, and included none of the bombast of his earlier talk about ‘consequences’.
Why the climbdown?
Well, the response from Pacific leaders had been immediate. While veiled in diplomatic language, they strongly pushed back.
For many in the Pacific Islands, China isn’t the Pacific’s big brother; it is increasingly the Pacific’s biggest bully. When someone says ‘there will be consequences’, that is a threat. China’s infamous wolf-warrior diplomacy is seen more and more like gangster behaviour.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr, the new chairman of the forum, invited all partners of the Pacific to ‘sail with them’ but emphasised that the leaders of the Pacific Islands would captain the ship. They would set the course for their future.
China will no doubt keep trying to undermine Palau’s support of Taiwan and to limit Taiwan’s participation at international gatherings. An apparent effort by China to ensure that some leaders did not attend this year’s meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum shows that it will continue to exert pressure on Taiwan’s partners, publicly and privately.
But what is evident so far at the 55th annual meeting of the forum is that Pacific leaders don’t like threats. And when they are unified and have agency, they set the agenda for the future of the region.
