The Papua New Guinea (Papua New Guinea) government unilaterally announced the closure of our representative office in Papua New Guinea in July, and recently required our staff to leave the country within a time limit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to proactively close the representative office and withdraw all personnel stationed there. Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Mingqi responded to a question at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan today. After PNG signed a large order for liquefied natural gas (LNG) with China in November, it immediately asked us to close the embassy immediately, which was an act of "subservience to China." He bluntly said that China's current economic situation is not good. "There are fewer and fewer inducements and more and more economic coercion." In addition to dealing with the PNG issue, we must be more vigilant around the world.
Chen Mingqi explained the evacuation progress in an interview before the meeting. He said that the Chinese Embassy in Papua New Guinea will be evacuated in the near future, the embassy building and the director’s dormitory will be terminated, and official vehicles and other museum properties will be disposed of through auction, which is expected to be completed within this month.
Democratic Progressive Party legislator Luo Meiling pointed out that the agricultural technology cooperation between Taiwan and Papua New Guinea has been carried out since 1990, and the medical cooperation plan also started in 2006. Now it has been completely terminated. "It is regrettable to stop it immediately." She also cited data from the Ministry of Education and pointed out that in the past 10 years, about 30 to 40 students from New Zealand came to Taiwan to study in Taiwan every year. The number reached a peak in 2011, and then declined year by year from 2012 to 2014. She questioned whether this was an early warning and whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had grasped the signs before July.
Lin Hongxun, deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained in response to inquiries that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received an order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Papua New Guinea on July 16 to close the representative office. However, following instructions from the minister and reaching consensus with high-level government officials, we did not evacuate immediately. Instead, we stayed there and continued to communicate with the Papua New Guinea government. During this period, we once obtained a written guarantee from Papua New Guinea that the closure period would be about one year. However, a high-level delegation from Papua New Guinea recently visited China, and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea will also go to China to attend the APEC meeting next week. The Asia-Pacific Division has determined that the PNG government may have been pressured or economically induced by China, which is why it suddenly notified our representatives and relevant personnel last Friday that they must leave the country within one week.
Chen Mingqi said that China has suppressed Taiwan's bilateral relations in an all-round way. "We are not surprised by the incident in PNG, but we are a little surprised by the choice of timing" and even "feel like being attacked." He analyzed that Taiwan's diplomatic work in Eastern Europe and other places has made good progress in the past one or two years, which has also put a lot of pressure on China. Therefore, China exerted its efforts in other places to seek breakthroughs. The PNG incident occurred in this context; several similar cases also occurred around the world.
As for PNG students who are still studying in Taiwan, Chen Mingqi said that government scholarships were originally provided under the bilateral cooperation framework. After the termination of bilateral relations, the scholarships cannot be provided anymore. This is also a choice that we are "very unwilling to make." But if the school is willing to let the students stay, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will respect the school's decision and the students can stay in Taiwan. He said that when South Pacific countries severed diplomatic relations with me in the past, they also handled it in this way.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 6th that based on national dignity, diplomatic independence and overall national interests, it decided to voluntarily close the representative office in PNG and completely terminate the technical cooperation and assistance plan for PNG. It also stopped purchasing 500,000 tons of natural gas spot in PNG. The U.S. State Department also expressed deep concern on the 7th, criticizing this as another example of Beijing's intimidation of Taiwan. Foreign Minister Lin Jialong pointed out in July that Taiwan purchases more than 1.2 million metric tons of natural gas from PNG every year, accounting for nearly one-third of PNG’s natural gas production.
