In the presidential elections held in Taiwan on 13 January 2024, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate William Lai emerged victorious. This marked a record third term at the helm for any Taiwanese party and comes after the current President Tsai IngWen lays down office after two four-year terms and thus was ineligible to run.

What brought the election outcome back to the limelight notwithstanding China’ claim on the island as one of its own provinces was that just 48 hours after the announcement that the ruling party had secured the presidency, the south-west Pacific Ocean island of Nauru, with a population of 12,500, dropped a bombshell by announcing it was cutting formal diplomatic ties with Taipei and was establishing relations with Beijing.

Nauru is one of the world’s smallest countries located about 4,000 km northeast of Sydney and has a total land area of 21 sq km. How did it transpire? On 15 January, Nauru’s President David Adeang announced in a national address his country’s decision to end its decades-long ties with Taiwan to recognise China. He also said that the move was in the “best interests” of the island nation and its people. It transpired that henceforth Nauru would be moving to follow the “One-China principle” and was seeking a resumption of full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

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This meant that the Republic of Nauru will no longer recognise the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a separate country but rather as an inalienable part of China. Further, the government statement called this “a significant first step in moving forward with Nauru’s development.”

As regards China, it continues to claim Taiwan despite the fact it has not ruled the island nation for the past 70 years and sees it as having no right to establish state-to-state ties. Taiwan........

© The Statesman