Taiwan pledges support to Palau after issue of Chinese pressure raised
ROC Central News Agency
06/27/2023 03:47 PM
Taipei, June 27 (CNA) Taiwan on Tuesday pledged to continue its support for Palau but urged other countries to join the effort after Palau's leader recently admitted that his country was facing pressure from China to switch diplomatic ties with promises of more tourists.
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. told the Indian newspaper The Sunday Guardian that China remained the biggest investor in his country and had asked for more direct flights despite the lack of official diplomatic ties.
Palau has been trying to build a more diversified and resilient economy to limit China's influence, he said, but acknowledged it was hard to say no to Chinese money given that his country's economy was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are really trying to bring others here. Japan is slow, Korea is slow, Taiwan is slow. China is saying 'give us more flights.' It's hard to say we won't accept them because hotels are empty, boats are empty," he told the Indian newspaper in a story published on June 25.
Whipps Jr. also called for direct flights from Japan and South Korea and proposed that the two countries, along with the United States, Australia, and Taiwan help lengthen the Palau airport's runway so that bigger civilian planes and military aircraft could land.
In Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement Tuesday that Taiwan has done its best to help Palau develop tourism, its main source of income, especially after Palau's economy cratered because of travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Taiwan and Palau organized the inaugural Belau Omal Marathon on June 4, with about 600 runners taking part from around the world, mostly from Taiwan, Palau, the Philippines, the United States and Japan.
Taiwan has repeatedly in recent years talked up its support for tourism in Palau, even trying to encourage Taiwanese to visit Palau during the pandemic.
But the actual support has been limited. Over the past 20 years, Taiwanese visitors to Palau peaked at 41,909 in 2004 and were at around 30,000 a year (peaking at 37,512) from 2011 to 2014, according to Tourism Bureau statistics on outbound travelers.
Since then, however, visitor numbers were at their highest in 2019 at 15,511, before falling to 2,628 in 2020, 2,621 in 2021 and 1,535 in 2022, Tourism Bureau figures showed.
Based on two direct flights per week between Taiwan and Palau, the number has rebounded to 3,605 in the first four months of 2023, not far off the pace of 2019, but still far short of the support Palau needs to sustain its tourism-based economy.
Sidestepping Whipps Jr.'s request for help on the airport, MOFA reiterated its stance that it has been "actively assisting" its ally in terms of development and will continue to work with other like-minded countries regarding such efforts.
The MOFA statement also said Taiwan understood first-hand how China uses economic coercion in an attempt to gain sway over a smaller country, and it condemned Beijing for doing so simply to snatch away more of Taiwan's formal diplomatic allies.
Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, has had formal diplomatic relations with Palau since 1999.
The small Pacific island country is one of only 13 states worldwide that recognize the ROC instead of the People's Republic of China.
(By Joseph Yeh)
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