Chinese Pressure May Be Behind Pacific Leaders’ No-Shows at Key Summit, Experts Say

KOROR, Palau—Several Pacific leaders have pulled out of a key regional summit in Palau this week, with experts saying Beijing’s pressure is behind the no-shows.

Palau is hosting this year’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting, the annual gathering of the region’s 18-member bloc, which officially kicked off on Aug. 31.

It comes a year after Taiwan was blocked from participating in related events alongside the forum in the Solomon Islands, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 2019. Palau, by contrast, has maintained formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan since 1999.

Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr., in a speech at the summit’s opening ceremony on Monday, emphasized the importance of Pacific sovereignty amid growing interest in the region from outside powers.

“Our partners are welcome to sail with us, but they do not choose our destination. The Pacific agenda must be driven by us, for us, and the forum must remain the political home in which that agenda is shaped,” Whipps said.

The leaders of Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and the French territory of New Caledonia skipped the summit in person, sending ministers or senior officials to represent them instead.

Leaders’ Absence

The leaders have their own reasons for not attending, but some situations could be “clearly linked to Chinese influence or destabilization operations,” Cleo Paskal, senior fellow at the Palau-based think tank Compass Point Institute, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 31.

Paskal pointed out that rhetoric about “Pacific family” unity fell short at Whipps’s 2025 inauguration, where only three heads of government attended: Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, both allies of Taiwan, along with Papua New Guinea.

Under the Compacts of Free Association, the United States provides economic support to Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia in exchange for strategic Pacific access—a key pillar of Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

“The best of the leaders—the ones fighting the most for their people and national sovereignty—are under the greatest attack,” Paskel said, referring to Chinese pressure on Pacific leaders.

Over the past two decades, Beijing has courted Pacific island nations as part of a broader effort to shrink Taipei’s diplomatic space, insisting that the self-governing democratic island is part of China. Other forum members that have severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing include Vanuatu in 2004, Kiribati in 2019, and Nauru in 2024.

Whipps has taken firm steps to safeguard Palau’s national sovereignty and maintain its diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Most recently, in an Epoch Times exclusive interview, he said he pushed back against a Chinese diplomat who pressed Palau not to invite Taiwan to the forum.

Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News in July, Whipps said China had repeatedly offered economic incentives to persuade Palau to switch its diplomatic allegiance, but that he had resisted.

“You cannot tell me that I cannot recognize Taiwan. That’s our sovereign choice as a country,” he told the outlet.

Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine officer and former U.S. diplomat, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 31 that Taiwan was the “nominal reason” for the leaders’ absence.

“China is angry that Palau … defied its demands that Taiwan be excluded from the PIF gathering,” Newsham said.

“By not having a ‘full-house’ at the meeting, Beijing makes its displeasure known, demonstrates its influence, and embarrasses Palau—or at least thinks it is, never seeming to realize that many Pacific Islanders simply consider Chinese behavior boorish.”

While Palau has rejected Chinese demands and bribes, Newsham said Kiribati’s financial ties to China may have influenced its decision to skip the summit. 

“One can only speculate about other non-attendee nations’ reasoning, but China—and fear of not provoking it—is likely part of the diplomatic reasoning,” Newsham added.  

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale traveled to Palau but returned home before the summit officially opened to deal with a vote in parliament aimed at removing him from power.

Wale, who has been critical of China, was elected in May, marking a shift from his predecessor Jeremiah Manele’s pro-Beijing government toward a more balanced foreign policy focused on diversifying the Solomon Islands’ international partnerships.

“The valiant efforts of the new government of [the] Solomon Islands to diversify their partnerships [have] resulted in an all-out attack to bring them down that is well-funded, well-resourced and well-informed,” Paskal said.  

“The timing of the vote of no confidence is not coincidental,” Paskel added. “It is designed to try to pull out Wale from the PIF and physically isolate him from potential partners and important conversations.  

“The remaining Solomon Islands team in Palau is excellent, but the lack of the prime minister will have an effect. What is urgently needed is an investigation into the money flows that are facilitating this political warfare attack.” 

Manasseh Maelanga, a member of parliament who recently resigned from his post as Home Affairs minister, filed the no-confidence motion on Aug. 29, accusing Wales of having “repeatedly made unilateral decisions on matters of national importance without proper consultation.” Maelanga was nominated for the prime ministership race before he withdrew before the vote in May.

While Maelanga has stated his reasons for filing the motion, Newsham said the real reasons behind it remained unclear. 

“China has likely been working behind the scenes in [the] Solomons to undermine the Wale administration from the day it took office,” Newsham added. 

Paskal explained that Beijing pressures leaders to skip the summit as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “disintegration warfare,” describing it as “a mainstream part of China’s strategy” aimed at coercing international organizations it cannot control into compliance or dismantling them altogether.

Under this type of warfare, Paskal said, the Chinese regime’s efforts at “poisoning” the PIF are akin to “pumping fentanyl into the lifeblood of America.”

“Once China stops attacking [a] country or an organization, you know it’s been captured,” Paskal said.