![]() That is that kind of influence from Beijing the Biden administration is trying to offset by opening the embassy in Nuku’alofa and in the other Pacific island nations. The country is considered upper income for Pacific island nations, but much of its wealth comes from remittances from overseas diaspora, according to the CIA, which also notes it is seeing “rapidly growing Chinese infrastructure investments.” Only 45 of those islands are inhabited, and two-thirds of Tonga’s population of 105,000 lives on the main island of Tongatapu. Tonga is a nation of 171 islands in the South Pacific about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book. Plans are also underway to open an embassy in Vanuatu, the State Department said in March.ĬNN interview with China's former ambassador to US, Cui Tiankai (CNN) MS#18336123 CNNĬhina sees Pacific islands as 'equals', US sees a 'backyard', claims Beijing's former envoy ![]() The embassy in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa is the second Washington has opened in the Pacific islands this year, following the reopening of one in the Solomon Islands in February. “These actions advance the Biden-Harris administration’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the US-Pacific Islands partnership and to support Pacific regionalism,” the White House said in a statement at the time. US Vice President Kamala Harris had announced the Biden administration’s intent to open the Tonga embassy, along with one in Kiribati, last year during the the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described the Tonga embassy opening as symbolizing “the renewal of our relationship and underlines the strength of our commitment to our bilateral relations, to the people of Tonga, and to our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.” The announcement came the same day the White House confirmed President Joe Biden will travel to Papua New Guinea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific region later this month, marking the first visit of a sitting US president to the Pacific country. “That’s why our integrated review refresh sets out a new approach to dealing with the challenge which China presents for the UK and the wider world.The United States opened an embassy in the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Tuesday, Washington’s latest move to broaden its diplomatic footprint in a region where China has been increasing its influence in recent years. The island has never been part of the People’s Republic of China but Beijing has insisted it must unite with the mainland, by force if necessary.Ī UK government spokesperson said it was in Britain’s interests to “continue engagement” with China while recognising the challenges the country presents, adding: “We have always been clear that China remains the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security. Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with the Communist party in control of the mainland. “But without freedom and democracy there is nothing else.” “There are still too many in the west who are trying to cling on to the idea that we can cooperate with China on issues like climate change, as if there is nothing wrong that there are bigger issues than Chinese global dominance or the future of freedom and democracy,” she is expected to say. The former Conservative leader is also expected to urge the west not to work with China, warning that totalitarian regimes “don’t tell the truth”. Truss is the most senior British politician to visit the country since Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, and comes at a time when relations between Britain and China have been at their most fractious in decades. The statement on the embassy website added: “We urge the relevant British politician to correct her wrongdoing, stop making political shows with the Taiwan question and stop conniving at and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces.” Instead, the service could be provided by organisations with the support of Hong Kong nationals and Taiwanese nationals who have come to the UK, on a free basis.”Ī spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said Truss’s visit to Taiwan was a “dangerous political show which will do nothing but harm to the UK”. Confucius Institutes should be closed down immediately. “The UK’s integrated review needs to be amended to state clearly that China is a threat. He was right and we need to see those policies enacted urgently. In a pre-briefed extract of her speech to the Prospect Foundation, Truss is expected to say: “Last summer the now British prime minister described China as ‘the biggest long-term threat to Britain’, and said the Confucius Institutes should be closed.
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