BY JULIAN RYALL
Japan Correspondent
KOROR, Palau —With just weeks to go before the presidential election on Nov. 5, the pressure on Palau is being ratcheted up. It is economic pressure aimed at the republic’s critical tourism sector, in slanted editorials in local media that have the power to sway the electorate, and in increasingly frequent intrusions into the nation’s territorial waters by foreign fishing boats and vessels conducting underwater mapping operations.
And President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. has no doubts about where the interference originates: China.
“When I was running for president four years ago, I had a conversation with the Chinese ambassador to Pohnpei,” Whipps told the Journal in a Sept. 19 interview at his offices in Koror.
“In fact, he called me quite regularly.
“His words were, ‘You’re a businessman, you understand the potential of the Chinese market, how many tourists you can have’,” Whipps said. At the time, Chinese tourists accounted for a high proportion of arrivals, with around 100,000 visitors a year.
“I let him know that we were keen to have visitors from everywhere and that we are friends to everyone, but the conversation quickly turned to him saying that Palau needs to join the rest of the world by stopping ‘illegal activities’ by recognizing Taiwan,” Whipps said.
Palau is one of the few remaining nations in the world to have diplomatic ties with Taipei rather than Beijing, a position that has clearly angered China and is one of the reasons for the campaign to encourage Palau to switch its allegiances.
Whipps said he told the Chinese ambassador that diplomatic ties with Taiwan should not preclude a relationship with China, but that decision is up to Beijing.
Shortly after the conversation, Whipps said, “Tourism from China started dropping.” And this year, the pressure on a sector that is so important to the island nation has been stepped up.
Marketing in China of Palau as a destination has been halted, Whipps said, while Palau was denied a presence at the annual summit of the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Macau in May, despite being a member. A letter explaining the organizers’ position said Palau was being omitted because it has diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
China has also told its nationals that they should avoid travelling to Palau on the grounds that it is “dangerous,” Whipps said, after a Chinese national was murdered in Koror last December.
Readers may remember that Guam Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Nine conducted an autopsy and confirmed the death as a homicide. He traveled to Palau after Whipps had requested his presence through Guam governor Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero.
An investigation has subsequently connected the killing to another Chinese national based in Saipan who was running a drug and people-trafficking operation and who was later arrested, convicted and extradited to the U.S. to serve a prison term.
“It is another easy excuse to keep Chinese tourists from coming out,” Whipps said. “He was not a tourist; this was organized crime. And it just so happened that the Chinese ban on travel announced in June coincided with my visit to the president of Taiwan (Lai Ching-te) to reaffirm our strong relations.”
Whipps is also deeply concerned at efforts to manipulate politicians and the electorate through the media, claiming that a recent opinion article in a local newspaper “is Chinese propaganda that we have lost our sovereignty and, basically, that the U.S. has taken control of Palau.”
He dismissed that suggestion, pointing out that the Compacts of Free Association between Palau and the U.S. allow for the joint use of seaports and airfields, as well as the U.S. to station troops and equipment on the islands.
“In our view, it is a strategic partnership,” he said. “We understand our location and the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific and having joint-use facilities and operations here is an important part of ensuring peace and stability in our region.”
And one does not have to look too far to find an example of what happens when international security guarantees are not immediately available, he said.
“We are right next door to the Philippines, and we have watched what has happened over there with their reefs being taken over” by the Chinese military, he said. The Hague Tribunal may have ruled that the atolls are sovereign Philippine territory, but there is little that Manila or the wider international community can do to recover them given Beijing’s military might.
Palau has not been immune to China attempting to chip away at its ocean territories, Whipps said. Chinese maritime reconnaissance ships have entered Palau’s exclusive economic zone and unilaterally given Chinese names to two sea mounts that were already known by Palauan names.
“They are trying to discredit our claim,” Whipps said.
While Beijing is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it has stated that it does not recognize and will not be bound by all of its provisions.
And this is why Taiwan’s ongoing democracy is important not only to the people of the island, he said, but to every one of the Pacific states where China is presently attempting to exert its considerable influence over domestic issues.
“If you are a small country like us, of just 20,000 people, and another government decides that you are not a country, that makes us think about how we can best secure our sovereignty,” Whipps said.
“We are grateful to have the protection of the U.S. and this special partnership, and we believe that all nations should play by the rules, respect other countries’ sovereignty and allow other people to live peacefully,” the president said.
“And that is where everyone in the Pacific starts to get concerned.
“If Taiwan’s sovereignty is tested, then we are all being tested,” he said. “The reefs off the Philippines are another example of that. [China is] testing the international community to see how far they can go. And that is unfortunate, because everyone in the Pacific wants to maintain the peace and harmony that we have. Nobody wants a repeat of World War Two.” mbj
Palau president speaks on China and geo-political realities
Palau president speaks on China and geo-political realities
- Date Posted: Sep 27, 2024
- News: Palau
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Palau president speaks on China and geo-political realities