Pacific Islands Forum Bows to Beijing’s Demand to Delete Reference to Taiwan

For over three decades, the final communique from the Pacific Islands Forum’s (PIF) leader meeting has included a seemingly innocuous paragraph reaffirming a decision, originally made in 1992, to welcome Taiwan as a “development partner” in the region. It was one of 76 paragraphs in this year’s missive, sitting amongst other topics from the contentious (New Caledonia) to the mundane (the date of the next meeting). But then, as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. Hours later, the communique reappeared on the Forum’s website, but with no mention of Taiwan, which was originally the subject of the 66th paragraph....