Recently, some media have spread misinformation about the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders' Meeting in Solomon Islands and hyped up narratives such as "China interfering in Forum cooperation". Such remarks and comments are seriously inconsistent with the facts, confusing the international community's perception and undermining the cooperation landscape in the Pacific region. They are either due to ignorance or deliberate.
As a dialogue partner of the PIF, China has always given full respect for the Pacific Island Countries (PICs)' efforts to seek strength through unity, making it an important pillar of its policy towards PICs. It respects the Forum's important role in regional cooperation and attaches great importance to developing relations with the Forum and its members. Since the establishment of the Forum's dialogue mechanism, China has never missed a single Forum dialogue and has always actively used this platform to discuss practical measures with all parties to support the development of PICs. The Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in May this year clearly reaffirmed China's policy towards PICs, emphasizing that China stands ready to work with PICs to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development. China will continue to provide support for PICs’ development within the framework of South-South cooperation to the best of its ability. China values the annual opportunity for dialogue when the Leaders of the Forum meet. To suggest that China has worked to exclude itself from the dialogue in the Solomon Islands this coming September just does not stack up.
Regarding the Taiwan-related issue concerning the Forum, the facts are clear and definite: Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. It has never been, is not now, and will never be a sovereign state. Furthermore, it has never been admitted as a PIF dialogue partner or observer from the outset, and has no qualification or right to participate in Forum activities whatsoever. Taiwan's participation in international organizations' activities must be handled in accordance with the one-China principle, which is the basic norm governing international relations affirmed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758. The Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communique violated the one-China principle in the first place. Now, more than 30 years later, China has established diplomatic relations with 11 of the 14 PICs, and all these countries firmly adhere to the one-China principle and clearly support China's reunification. This is an inevitable result of the development of the regional situation and a prevailing consensus of the international community. It is now time to correct the erroneous Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communique. Some countries and forces still attempt to create disturbances using the Taiwan question, and they are the ones that are interfering with the Forum's focus on development issues, undermining the unity and cooperation among PICs, and endangering regional peace and stability.
The inclusion of Taiwan-related content in the Communique of last year's Forum Leaders' Meeting was completely a mistake; the leaders did not discuss this issue at all. The Forum Troika reached a unanimous decision to delete it, and China appreciates it. China urges the relevant parties to earnestly follow the one-China principle, stop spreading false information, and create a sound environment for the PIF to focus on promoting internal and external cooperation and serving the well-being of the people in the region.