September 13, 2019
No.205
According to information obtained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the report of the bipartisan Task Force set up by the government of Solomon Islands is inaccurate and biased. It seriously distorts the facts, and incorrectly states that the Task Force previously came to Taiwan on a fact-finding mission to engage in discussions with the Taiwanese government.
MOFA hereby clarifies that the Task Force has never visited Taiwan. Certain individual members were part of the Solomon Islands delegation that attended the assembly of the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union held in Taiwan in August this year. As they did not come in the capacity of a fact-finding delegation on that occasion, MOFA did not exchange views with them. In fact, the report does not even properly state the names and titles of the three MOFA officers they claimed to have talked to, much less the content of these purported talks. Furthermore, the report’s statement that MOFA officers informed Solomon Islands that Taiwan would not conduct any special assistance programs for Solomon Islands is simply a lie.
In consideration of such factual errors, the conclusions and recommendations put forward by the report therefore lack credibility, and are unlikely to be endorsed by the vast majority of citizens and political figures in Solomon Islands. MOFA urges all sectors of Solomon Islands to reject the predetermined conclusions of the report and the debt trap they may lead to.
The government of the Republic of China calls on the government of Solomon Islands to adhere to its previously announced due procedures and refer to related reports prepared by its Foreign Ministry, Parliament, and Prime Minister’s Office; listen to grassroots public opinion; make relevant decisions in a democratic, lawful, open and transparent manner; and not formulate critical foreign policy on the basis of a false report that seeks to obfuscate using misinformation. Otherwise, the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and Solomon Islands may be jeopardized. (E)