Palau’s president raises threat of pivot to Beijing if US funds are delayed further
- President Surangel Whipps Jnr writes that local leaders want to gain more financial aid from Beijing ‘at the cost of shifting alliances, beginning with sacrificing Taiwan’
- Letter by Whipps comes as US Senate fails to include funds pledged by US President Joe Biden in latest foreign-aid bill
Washington’s delay in providing economic help to the Pacific island nation Palau has made some local leaders more willing to drop diplomatic ties to Taiwan in exchange for Beijing’s financial assistance, the country’s president has warned.
“The leaders here (some of whom have done ‘business’ with the PRC) who want to accept its seemingly attractive economic offers – at the cost of shifting alliances, beginning with sacrificing Taiwan,” President Surangel Whipps Jnr wrote in a letter dated February 9.
The letter was sent to a US senator whose name was redacted from the copy first posted on Wednesday by Indo-Pacific expert Cleo Paskal on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Whipps reposted Paskal’s post on his own X account.
Palau, an archipelago of more than 500 islands, is one of 11 nations that continue to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Since 2016, Taiwan has lost around a dozen diplomatic allies.
Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province that is to be united eventually with the mainland, by force if necessary.
