PNG is not an isolated case. In the past 10 years, there have been numerous cases of China intimidating and forcing our embassy offices abroad to change their names and move.

Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko issued a statement on social media in July this year, saying that Papua New Guinea reaffirmed the one-China principle and would close the Chinese consulate in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. (Picture taken from Justin Tkatchenko Facebook)

After Papua New Guinea unilaterally announced the closure of our representative office in July this year, it recently once again required our personnel to leave the country within a time limit. On the 6th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would proactively close its representative office in Papua New Guinea and withdraw all personnel stationed there. The U.S. State Department later stated that this was another example of Beijing’s intimidation against Taiwan. In fact, Papua New Guinea is not a single incident. Since 2017, Chinese embassies in foreign countries have been delisted, renamed and forced to move out of the capital under pressure from China. Papua New Guinea is the first case where the embassy in Papua New Guinea has taken the initiative to take back the initiative from renaming and downgrading to closing the embassy.

In February 1990, my country established the "Republic of China (Taiwan) Business Mission to Papua New Guinea" in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the few foreign missions that still uses the country's name in non-diplomatic countries. In February 2018, under pressure from China, Papua New Guinea required the delegation to change its name, remove its badges, and confiscate its diplomatic and consular license plates. In May of the same year, it was renamed the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Papua New Guinea" and was downgraded to the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Papua New Guinea" in 2024. On July 15 this year, PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko announced the closure of the Chinese Embassy and the suspension of its operations on the grounds of the "One China Policy" and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China.

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China suppresses Chinese embassies abroad. Similar tactics have appeared on a large scale in 2017

Similar techniques have appeared on a large scale in 2017. Chen Junxian, the then Director of Asia, West Asia and Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed at the time that China had pressured China to change the names of our diplomatic missions in five non-diplomatic countries, including Nigeria, Bahrain, Ecuador, Dubai, and Jordan. Among them, Nigeria publicly demanded in early 2017 that our office move out of the capital Abuja, change its name, and reduce its staff. In June of the same year, it sent armed police to blockade the office and force personnel to leave. Our office was finally moved to the commercial city of Lagos and renamed the Taipei Trade Office; the words "Republic of China" in the names of the offices in Ecuador and Dubai were also changed to "Taipei."

Fiji in the South Pacific has experienced many turning points. In July 2019, under pressure from China, the former Fiji government changed the name of the "Republic of China Commercial Mission in Fiji" to the "Taipei Commercial Office in Fiji"; at the end of 2022, the Fiji government After the party change, the new government restored the original name and diplomatic privileges of our station in 2023, which was the only successful case of name restoration in the past. However, in 2024, it was changed back to "Taipei Commercial Office" under pressure from China, and the diplomatic privileges were also cancelled.

South Africa is an ongoing case. Since the end of 2023, South Africa has repeatedly asked us to move our headquarters away from the administrative capital Pretoria. In March 2025, the official website of the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs downgraded the "Taipei Liaison Representative Office" and renamed it "Taipei Commercial Office", and changed its address to Johannesburg. In July of the same year, it announced in the government gazette that our two embassy offices in South Africa were renamed "Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg" and "Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town". In response, we once announced that 47 items of semiconductor-related goods would be exported to South Africa for approval and production as a countermeasure. South Africa immediately requested consultation, and we just agreed to suspend it.

In terms of Hong Kong and Macao, the Hong Kong government suspended the operation of its office in Taiwan in May 2021. At the end of July of the same year, the last Chinese official stationed in Hong Kong returned to Taiwan due to the Hong Kong government's refusal to issue a work visa; Macao also suspended the operation of its office in Taiwan starting from June 19, 2021, and Chinese personnel stationed in Macao have successively withdrawn their letters of commitment due to the refusal to sign the No. 1 China Commitment Letter.

There are also disturbances in Europe. In November 2021, our country established the "Taiwan Representative Office in Lithuania" in Lithuania, which was the first European embassy named Taiwan. China immediately downgraded the diplomatic relations between the two countries to the level of charge d'affaires and imposed economic and trade sanctions. After Lithuania's new government took office, Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė publicly stated in February this year that it was a "strategic mistake" to establish the office under the name "Taiwan" and did not rule out changing its name to "Taipei Representative Office." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that the name of the office was a consensus reached by both Taiwan and Lithuania, and the two governments had not discussed changing the name.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the recent series of actions in Papua New Guinea have seriously affected the basis of mutual trust established by the long-term cooperation between the two sides, and also reflect China's continued use of political pressure and economic influence to interfere in other countries' foreign policy decisions and suppress Taiwan's international space. Countries should have the right to independently decide on the methods of exchanges and cooperation with Taiwan, and should not be subject to political coercion by third parties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also pointed out that in the future, diplomatic resources will be reinvested in friendly countries and other areas with cooperation potential and worthy of business.

While the diplomatic space is being compressed, our country has also made progress against the trend. In October 2024, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Mumbai was officially inaugurated and became my country's third stronghold in India. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made representations to the Indian side at that time.