Beijing seeks closer ties with Kiribati, site of Chinese space tracking station
- In a meeting in Beijing, Xi Jinping praised Kiribati for switching ties from Taipei, while Taneti Maamau reaffirmed his commitment to the ‘One China’ principle
- A Chinese diplomat said the sides were pursuing joint ventures, but he did not specify if Beijing would reopen a space tracking station in the Pacific island
A senior Chinese diplomat said Beijing was “open” to all sorts of projects in Kiribati, an ex-British colony made up mainly of atolls in the central Pacific, in waters dominated by the US and its allies since World War II.
“A lot of ideas, a lot of initiatives for joint ventures are still on the way,” said Lu, who heads the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs.
Xi lauded Kiribati on Monday for “standing on the right side of history” during his first meeting with the leader of the Pacific island nation since it switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in September.
Speaking to Xi, Maamau reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the “One China” principle and expressed his “deepest respect” for the Chinese government’s sovereignty.
China’s space programme is overseen by the military, which has so far declined to comment on the Kiribati facility.
China and Kiribati restored diplomatic ties last year after Kiribati switched its allegiance from Taipei to Beijing.
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Up until then, China had operated a space tracking station in Kiribati, which played a role in tracking China’s first manned space flight and is in a part of the world where the US tests missiles and other military hardware.
A former Taiwanese ambassador to Kiribati, Abraham Chu, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency last year that China had never fully removed the tracking station in Kiribati and that it “could come back at any time”.
The Solomon Islands, another Pacific state, also switched to Beijing from Taipei last year, in a process watched with concern by Washington, which is wary of China’s growing global influence.
Taiwan now has formal relations with just 15 countries, mostly small and poor nations in Latin America and the Pacific, including Nauru, Tuvalu and Palau. China has signalled it is coming for the rest of Taiwan’s allies.
Taiwan is set to hold its election on January 11. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is favoured to win a second term, an outcome that would likely intensify China’s economic, diplomatic and military pressure over her refusal to accept its insistence that Taiwan is a part of China.
Since her election in 2016, Beijing has increasingly sought to isolate Taipei diplomatically while ramping up its threat to use force to annex the self-governing island republic.
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It has flown military aircraft near the island and pared back Taiwan-bound tourism to add pressure on Tsai’s government.
Taiwan has responded by seeking to purchase arms from the US, including advanced fighter jets. Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, US law requires Washington to ensure that Taiwan has the means to defend itself.
Last month, less than two weeks before this weekend’s presidential and legislative elections, Taiwan’s legislature passed a law aimed at blocking political interference from China.
