<\/p>\n
The South Pacific nation of Nauru announced on Monday it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and would instead recognise China.<\/p>\n
The announcement came days after Taiwan elected<\/a> the independence-leaning Lai Ching-te as its next president<\/p>\n In a media release, the Nauru government said it would no longer recognise Taiwan \u201cas a separate country\u201d but \u201crather as an inalienable part of China\u2019s territory\u201d.<\/p>\n China claims democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if needed.<\/p>\n Nauru said it would \u201csever diplomatic relations\u201d with Taiwan immediately, and \u201cno longer develop any official relations or official exchanges with Taiwan\u201d.<\/p>\n Following the switch, Taiwan in turn said it was ending diplomatic relations with Nauru \u201cto safeguard our national dignity\u201d, said Taiwan\u2019s deputy foreign minister Tien Chung-kwang.<\/p>\n Taiwan\u2019s Presidential Office also accused Beijing of \u201cdiplomatic repression\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the whole world is congratulating Taiwan on successfully completing the election, Beijing launched such a diplomatic repression that is a retaliation against democratic values and a blatant challenge against a stable international order,\u201d said a statement from Presidential Office spokeswoman Olivia Lin.<\/p>\n Nauru\u2019s decision will likely be seen as a major coup for Beijing \u2014 the island nation was one of the few countries left that officially recognised Taiwan on a diplomatic basis.<\/p>\n \u201cThis change is in no way intended to affect our existing warm relationships with other countries,\u201d the Nauru government statement said.<\/p>\n \u201cNauru remains a sovereign and independent nation and wants to maintain friendly relations with other countries,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Taiwan and China have engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war to lure allies in the Pacific region, offering generous aid packages and assistance in agricultural and educational development.<\/p>\n Veteran politician David Adeang was elected Nauru\u2019s president in October last year.<\/p>\n Lowy Institute Pacific analyst Mihai Sora suspected Adeang\u2019s ascension to the country\u2019s top job might explain its unexpected sharp turn in foreign policy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s surprising because Nauru, typically in the last few years anyway, it\u2019s been quite vocal in its criticism of China,\u201d he told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s quite a step change for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Nauru is the latest Pacific country to turn its back on a longstanding relationship with Taiwan.<\/p>\n In a shock announcement made in 2019, Solomon Islands announced<\/a> that it would also officially recognise China.<\/p>\n That decision fuelled concern among Western allies that Beijing might seek to establish an increased military footprint in the strategically important Pacific region.<\/p>\n Only 12 states, including the Holy See, now fully recognise Taiwan.<\/p>\n In Africa, only Eswatini officially recognises Taiwan, while in Latin America, seven states have full diplomatic ties with the island, including Belize, Guatemala, Haiti and Paraguay.<\/p>\n Taiwan also cut its 17-year diplomatic relationship with Nauru in July 2002. But the two countries patched things up in 2005, when Nauru switched back to Taiwan.<\/p>\n The island microstate population 12,500 \u2014 is one of the world\u2019s smallest countries and lies about 4,000 kilometres northeast of Sydney.<\/p>\n China said it welcomed Nauru\u2019s decision to cut ties with Taiwan.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a sovereign and independent nation, Nauru has announced [\u2026] that it has severed its so-called \u2018diplomatic relations\u2019 with Taiwan and is willing to restore relations with China,\u201d a spokesperson for Beijing\u2019s foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n \u201cChina appreciates and welcomes the Nauru government\u2019s decision,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of it,\u201d the ministry spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Nauru government\u2019s decision to resume diplomatic ties with China fully demonstrates once again that the One China Principle reflects the sentiments of the people and is in line with the general trend,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n \u201cChina is willing to open a new chapter in bilateral ties with Nauru on the basis of [this] principle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The South Pacific nation of Nauru announced on Monday it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and would instead recognise China. The announcement came days after Taiwan elected the independence-leaning Lai Ching-te as its next president In a media release, the Nauru government said it would no longer recognise Taiwan \u201cas a separate country\u201d but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/151242330fd20d8.jpg?r=125446","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Diplomatic \u2018step change\u2019<\/h2>\n
China says \u2018welcomes\u2019 Nauru decision to cut ties with Taiwan<\/h2>\n