The leader of one of Taiwan’s last diplomatic allies in the Pacific said his nation is under increasing pressure from China to end its support for Taipei.
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr also accused China of violating the exclusive economic zone of his nation, an archipelago located north of Australia.
Palau is scheduled to hold a national election on Nov 5, the same day as the US presidential ballot.
Whipps, in an interview with Bloomberg, said Pacific nations are determined to maintain their sovereignty and territorial integrity, but warned that the struggle for geopolitical influence is intensifying and will test them.
Washington and Beijing have been vying for sway in a region that is the site of key shipping lanes and communication cables, together with fisheries and seabed minerals.
China “has been pushing hard”, Whipps said in response to a question on whether the result of Palau’s Nov 5 presidential and parliamentary elections would determine its future relationship with Taiwan.
“It’s very clear that they have an agenda, and the agenda is Taiwan,” he said. “They try to convince everybody that what Palau is doing, and everybody else, is illegal” in terms of recognising the Taipei authorities.
The government in Beijing considers the independently-governed island of Taiwan a rogue province.
China has deployed its rising economic might to steadily whittle away the number of nations that diplomatically recognise Taipei, particularly among developing Pacific nations where investment and infrastructure are urgently required.
Only 12 countries globally maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan after the Pacific state of Nauru announced in early 2024 that it would be switching recognition to Beijing.
That is one of the reasons why foreign ministries and analysts are closely watching elections in tiny nations like Palau, which has a population of around 20,000 people.
The country also sits strategically between the U.S state of Hawaii and America’s diplomatic partner, the Philippines.
Whipps has been broadly supportive of the Biden administration’s efforts to buttress diplomatic ties with the Pacific, even using the outgoing president’s “Build Back Better” slogan in his own re-election campaign.
The Palau leader has been keen to tighten security ties with Washington as well, even weighing the deployment of US missile batteries to his nation.
While the president has frequently been critical of China’s actions in the region, he did not provide specific instances of Beijing putting pressure on his administration to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to a written request for a response to the president’s comments.
Whipps faces a tight race for reelection against his predecessor, former president Tommy Remengesau Jr, who has questioned whether Palau needs to further strengthen military links with the US.
Still, Remengesau was adamant in his support for ties with Taiwan while in office. Bloomberg has reached out to his campaign for comment and has not received a reply as yet.
Whipps highlighted the exploration of sea floor mining as a point on which he also disagrees with Beijing.
While major governments around the world, including some Pacific neighbours, consider the sea floor an important place to explore for critical minerals to support the green transition, Whipps is an outspoken opponent.
“We have the healthiest tuna stocks in the world, but yet we want to go rip up the bottom of the Pacific and don’t know the consequences of it, because supposedly it’ll help us in the energy transition? We have to look at everything in totality,” he said.
Whipps said he was frustrated with Chinese vessels’ repeated, unauthorised entry into Palau’s exclusive economic zone, which stretches for 200 nautical miles (370km) around the nation.
The president previously accused Beijing of limiting Chinese visitors to Palau, a particularly sensitive area for the tourism dependent nation.
“This is where nations that believe in freedom, believe in democracy, believe in the rule of law, need to stick together and protect that,” Whipps said. “Because otherwise, we can just be swallowed up,” he said.
