Taipei livid over Kiribati switch

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan lashed out at China on Friday after the tiny island nation of Kiribati switched its recognition to Beijing, the second diplomatic defection in the strategically important Pacific in less than a week.

The move is another coup for Beijing just weeks before it celebrates the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

It comes just four days after the Solomon Islands made the same decision, and leaves Taiwan more isolated than ever with just 15 states left that recognize it.

At a hastily arranged press conference on Friday, Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu announced Taipei would immediately withdraw its diplomats and expected Kiribati to do the same.

He said Beijing had “seduced Kiribati to change its diplomatic ties” with promises of investment and aid.

“The President of Kiribati Taneti Mamau and certain people in his party have fantasies about China,” Wu added.

Taiwan has been a de facto sovereign nation since the end of a civil war in 1949, but China still views the island as its territory and has vowed to seize it — by force if necessary.

Over the decades, as China’s economic and military power has grown, most countries, including the United States and most Western nations, have switched recognition to Beijing.

In the last decade, only a handful have remained loyal to Taiwan, largely impoverished countries in Latin America and the Pacific. The only European state to still recognize Taiwan is the Vatican.