Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung will attend events related to a major summit of leaders from Pacific islands nations in Palau starting next week, his office said on Wednesday, though China said he had no right to take part.
China’s test-firing in July of a missile into the Pacific alarmed regional powers but failed to spur a unified response from Pacific Island governments, underscoring divisions over how to confront growing strategic competition in the region.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has gradually whittled away the number of Pacific island countries with formal ties to Taipei, with only three remaining – Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said that Lin would leave for Palau on Thursday and be there for a week, taking part in side events to the summit, including a Pacific Islands Forum dialogue meeting hosted by the forum’s secretariat, and the Pacific Prosperity Exhibit.
Lin will also meet Taiwan’s Pacific diplomatic allies and “other friendly nations to exchange views on deepening the partnership between Taiwan and Pacific island nations, as well as jointly maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region,” the ministry said in a statement.
China says Taiwan is one of its provinces, not a country.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said Taipei had “no qualifications” to take part in the forum, which is being held from Sunday until September 4.
“The Taiwan authorities sending Lin Chia-lung and other Taiwan independence separatists scurrying about all over to curry favour is a futile attempt to grab attention,” it said in a statement sent to Reuters.
The forum’s Fiji-based secretariat did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese comments.
China has expanded its influence in the Pacific in recent years through infrastructure financing, diplomatic outreach and security cooperation, which has prompted concern among traditional partners including Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
