Pacific Islands Forum communique taken down after Chinese envoy calls Taiwan reference ‘unacceptable’

A summit of Pacific leaders has ended in drama after China’s regional envoy demanded the scrapping of language about Taiwan, with the communique later republished without the offending paragraph.

The Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit in Tonga this week brought together Australia, New Zealand and 16 Pacific island countries or territories, only three of which still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

China is not a member of the regional grouping, but – like the US and numerous other major countries – attends some of the Pif events as a “dialogue partner”.

For more than 30 years, Taiwan has been afforded the lesser status of “development partner”, a situation that irks Beijing, which claims the self-governed democracy as its territory.

Solomon Islands, which has fostered increasingly warm ties with Beijing since switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan in 2019, had raised concerns in the lead-up to this week’s summit about Taiwan’s status.

But the final communique published on the Pif website on Friday rebuffed any push for change and stood by existing arrangements.

“Leaders reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China,” it said.

China’s special envoy for the Pacific, Qian Bo, called for changes to the communique.

Nikkei Asia reported that it saw a “visibly angry” Qian confront the Pif secretary general, Baron Waqa, immediately after the closing news conference and that he called the statement “unacceptable”.

Qian later told reporters in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, that it was “a surprising mistake made by someone” and it “must be corrected”.

He reiterated Beijing’s position that China should be seen as the representative “on behalf of the whole China, including Taiwan and the mainland”, Nikkei Asia reported.

The Guardian has seen and verified a copy of the final communique that appeared on the Pif website earlier on Friday. It included a line reaffirming the decades-long arrangements regarding Taiwan.

But as of Friday evening local time, this communique was no longer easily accessible on the website.

The communique was republished on the Pif website on Saturday morning local time, but with paragraph 66 about Taiwan no longer included.

A paragraph about Solomon Islands being the host of next year’s Pif was moved up to become the new paragraph 66.

A spokesperson for the Pif secretariat said the new document was “the correct version”, but played down the practical impact of the change.

“The version as finalised does not change nor impact the decisions of the meeting, nor any standing decisions of the forum leaders,” the spokesperson said.

“The communique is a consensus-based document, reflecting the agreed decisions and views of all the Pacific Islands Forum.”

Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, Tien Chung-kwang, also travelled to Nuku’alofa this week. Tien held talks with Taiwan’s three remaining Pacific allies, Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.

China’s foreign ministry said on Friday: “Any attempt by the Taiwan authorities to brush up their sense of presence by rubbing shoulders with the forum can only be self-deceptive.”

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had previously played down the prospect of any attempt to change Taiwan’s status within Pif structures.

When asked about the matter on Thursday morning, prior to the leaders’ retreat, Albanese said: “Well, that hasn’t been discussed at all. We support all the existing arrangements.”