The final statement from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting included language reasserting Taiwan’s self-governing status and affirming its involvement with the Forum.
This drew a furious response from China’s special envoy to the Pacific, who demanded the reference be removed.
Within hours, the document was pulled from the PIF website and reposted without the Taiwan reference.
Dr. Tess Newton Cain with the Griffith Asia Institute told Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the incident has opened up questions "around whether there was any kind of influence over the Secretariat to make that change."
A PIF spokesperson has denied that the Taiwan language was removed under pressure from China, calling it an administrative error.
