Pro-Taiwan Nauru switches sides

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15

Days after Taiwan elected a pro-independence candidate as the next President, Beijing dealt Taipei a shock when it weaned away one of the few countries that recognise it as an independent nation.

The Pacific Island nation of Nauru on Monday announced that it had cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established ties with China. Nauru is the 10th country to switch sides since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power in 2016.

Though China had warned Taiwan’s voters that the election of the DPP candidate would increase the risk of conflict, Lai Ching-te, the current vice president, won the presidential polls on Saturday.

A miffed Taiwanese Foreign Ministry condemned China in “the strongest possible terms”. The very sudden move at a key moment is part of China’s move to suppress Taiwan’s democratic achievements, said Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang.

Incidentally, the Nauru government had congratulated Lai’s presidential victory on Sunday. China and the US have in recent years stepped up their competition for influence in the Pacific. In 2019, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands both ditched Taiwan for China.

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