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Taiwan
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Kiribati’s pro-China leader wins re-election in blow to Taiwan

  • Taneti Maamau, who in September announced the Pacific island nation’s switch to diplomatic ties with Beijing, remains president
  • The result dashes Taipei’s hopes of a resumption of formal ties, leaving it with 15 remaining diplomatic allies

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Kiribati’s President Taneti Maamau and China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, in January. Photo: Reuters
John PowerandMaria Siow
The leader of Kiribati was re-elected on Monday after campaigning for closer relations with China, dashing Taiwan’s hopes of a diplomatic U-turn months after the Pacific island nation severed their ties in favour of Beijing.

Taneti Maamau, who announced the diplomatic switch in September, won 26,053 votes in the closely watched presidential run-off, compared with 17,866 votes for ally-turned-rival Banuera Berina.

Maamau, who in April lost his parliamentary majority over his handling of the switch to Beijing, carried 16 of the 23 constituencies in the country, a collection of 32 coral atolls and one raised coral island spread across 3.8 million square kilometres of the Pacific.
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Berina, who split with the government after complaining of being excluded from secret negotiations with China before the switch, had left open the possibility of re-establishing ties with Taipei, which Beijing considers a renegade province with no right to diplomatic relations.

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Taiwan, which also lost the Solomon Islands last year, has 15 remaining diplomatic allies, four of which are Pacific island nations. Its foreign ministry said it would continue to observe developments in Kiribati and cooperate with like-minded countries on “security, stability, freedom, openness and democratic governance in the Pacific region”.

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