The 53rd Pacific Island Leaders' Meeting in Tonga. Photo: Pacific Islands Forum
China has made "great contributions to the development of the Pacific" and "Taiwan is not a dialogue partner" to the Pacific Islands Forum," Beijing's Special Envoy to the region has told reporters in Tonga.
The 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting concluded Friday, with leaders releasing a communique emphasising solidarity to confront a range of challenges faced by the region.
The document, which appears to have been taken down from the Pacific Islands Forum website as at 7.30pm NZT, included a section under the subheading 'Relations with Taiwan/Republic of China'.
It stated that: "66. Leaders reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China."
The ABC reported that Solomon Islands had been pressing other Pacific nations at the Tonga meeting to remove Taiwan's as a "development partner" of the regional institution.
Responding to questions from the journalists in Nuku'alofa, China's Pacific Ambassador Qian Bo said, "it must be mistake".
He said, "this should not be a final communique" and "there must be a correction on the text".
China's Pacific ambassador Qian Bo fronting the media in Tonga. Photo: Facebook / The Pacific Newsroom
Bo said 15 out of the 18 Forum countries has diplomatic relations with China, who "have categorically stated they abide by the one China principle".
"This is surprising mistake made by someone, but I think it must be corrected," he said.
The PIF Secretariat has not provided any updates as to the reason why the final communique might have been taken down.
But when pressed by journalists on what was the mistake that needed to be corrected in the final communique, Bo replied: "Just follow me on WeChat or Facebook and we will make our position very clear."
Bo said China already talked to the PIF Secretariat, its secretary-general and some other delegations, and received wide understanding and support.
But he said whether issue was adequately solved is not a main issue.
"The key issue is the fact that Taiwan is part of China, and Taiwan will certainly not be the development dialogue partner for the PIF."
Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu are the only Pacific nations that continue to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Earlier this month, Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr told RNZ Pacific that Beijing has "openly told us that we should not recognise Taiwan".
Whipps claimed Beijing was using economic coercion tactics to put pressure on Palau to ditch Taiwan.
However, he said Palau "treasure" the relationship with Taiwan and "nobody else should say that we can't be their friend".
Whipps said Palau was willing to be China's friend, but not at the expense of its relationship with Taipei.