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Associated Press

A senior US diplomat on Friday urged Pacific island nations not to withdraw their diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, warning that pressure from Beijing to change the self-ruled island’s international standing threatened to raise the risk of conflict.
US acting assistant secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy made the comments in Canberra at the end of a three-day Australian visit for talks with officials in the newly re-elected government on expanding their security alliance.
Six Pacific island nations officially recognise Taiwan, accounting for a third of Taipei’s diplomatic allies around the world.
But they are under growing pressure from Beijing to switch allegiance as it builds influence in the region.

Murphy said diplomatic decisions should not be influenced by mainland China.
“China is attempting to reduce Taiwan’s diplomatic relations in the region and that’s kind of heavy-handed,” he said. “It gives rise to tensions by changing the status quo and then the possibility of conflict.”
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Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Hou had promised to review the nation’s relations with Taiwan before he lost power at elections last month. Switching recognition to Beijing, the Solomons’ biggest export market, remains a live issue.
Murphy said the United States had “strong diplomatic relations” with the Solomons, and had congratulated new Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
He declined to say whether he discussed with Australian officials concerns of some security analysts that Beijing wanted to construct a deep water military base somewhere in the Pacific.
Chinese militarisation in the Pacific would be as destabilising as its militarisation of disputed islands in the South China Sea, he said.
“A growing military presence anywhere in the region of a country like China that doesn’t work on a rules-based approach or adhere to international standards is and should be of concern,” Murphy said.
“We have a lot of national interests in the region that are built on freedoms of commerce, navigation and overflight. We have key partners and the establishment of a military presence there, the notion, the concept is indeed quite troubling.”
Pacific islanders feel squeeze as Beijing bans tour groups
Murphy is expected to fly to Australia’s nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, on Saturday where Prime Minister Peter O’Neill backs Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The US and Australia have committed to redevelop a Papua New Guinea naval base on Manus Island.
Murphy said the Lombrum Naval Base expansion was about “partnership with Papua New Guinea and meeting its needs”, not denying China a military presence in the poor nation of about 8 million people.
When Australia and Papua New Guinea announced the upgrade in October, China cautioned both countries to discard “cold war” thinking, referring to an era when the world was less integrated.
“The Pacific island countries should not be the sphere of influence of any country,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at the time.


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News

China

Diplomacy

Beijing’s efforts to reduce Taipei’s links in region raise ‘possibility of conflict’, says US acting assistant secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy
Six Pacific island nations recognise Taiwan, accounting for a third of its diplomatic allies around the world


Beijing’s efforts to reduce Taipei’s links in region raises ‘possibility of conflict’, says US acting assistant secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy.


US-China relations: the Asian angle

Taiwan