PM Modi to reach out to Pacific in US

New Delhi: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet leaders of the Pacific Island nations together in New York on September 24 as part of an outreach and “plurilateral” meeting hosted by India, its giant eastern neighbour China is fast making inroads into the region. As Beijing prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1 and ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India next month for the second informal summit, two tiny Pacific nations — Solomon Islands and Kiribati — have snapped ties with Taiwan and embraced Beijing. In another development, about 130 Taiwanese companies are moving back from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan and are eyeing India to relocate their businesses.

India, incidentally, like most nations in the world, follows the “One China Policy” and does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation. So while Taiwan does not have a diplomatic mission in New Delhi, it is represented de-facto by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) in New Delhi. China regards Taiwan as part of it and as a renegade province. But, the Chinese government has not had physical jurisdiction over Taiwan since 1949 when the defeated nationalist Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-Shek fled to the island of Taiwan off the Chinese mainland coast following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war in that nation.

The world was taken by surprise in the past week when the two tiny Pacific nations of Solomon Islands and Kiribati swiftly broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established ties with China. Beijing does not have diplomatic ties with any country that recognises Taiwan as a sovereign nation and that has formal diplomatic ties with it. There are now just about 15 small nations in the world — mostly in Latin America and Africa — that recognise Taiwan now as a sovereign nation. The developments reveal a Chinese diplomatic offensive in the Pacific region that New Delhi will no doubt be watching closely.

The “Vice-Chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)” Liu Shih-Chung who is currently visiting India told reporters in New Delhi that about 130 companies from Taiwan that had set up businesses in the Chinese mainland now want to pack their bags and return to Taiwan.