Taiwan's largest partner in the South Pacific will soon make a final decision on its relations with Taipei. The Solomon Islands government has said its relationship with Taipei is on the rocks and within 100 days Taipei may be abandoned.

The Solomon Islands, one of Taipei's remaining diplomatic partners in the Pacific, sent delegations to study Chinese aid in neighboring countries including Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea as it considers a potential diplomatic switch to Beijing, the delegation leader said on June 24.

Zhong Houtao, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says that currently people in Taiwan do not care that much about international participation, but pay much attention to their own lives and economic factors. With regards to those 17 diplomatic partners with Taiwan, he points out that most people in Taiwan don't have the opportunity to visit those countries, and barely know anything about the Taiwan's so-called diplomatic partners.

In addition, Zhong emphasizes that it is an international trend that more countries will establish diplomatic relations with Chinese mainland, as more than 170 members of the United Nations have recognized the People's Republic of China and its sovereignty. Besides, enhancing cooperation and collaboration with the Chinese mainland will give a great boost to economic growth in Solomon Islands.

"Those 17 countries... will follow this trend," he believes. "Just take Solomon Islands as an example. The Chinese mainland is its largest trading partner. If it could normalize its relationship with the Chinese mainland, I think it will attract much more investment from the Chinese mainland, and more tourists," which will give a great stimulus to its economic and social development. "So I think this is not only just an international trend, but also it is in their national interests," he said.

Speaking of the consequences of the Solomon Islands cutting ties with Taiwan, Joanna Lei, Managing Director of Azul Management Ltd., says it will be a major defeat for Tsai Ing-wen's administration and its political policy towards islands in Southeast Asia. Tsai's administration has a very strong Southbound Policy, which was created by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and promoted by Tsai Ing-wen.

In terms of U.S. interference on the Taiwan issue, Victor Gao Zhikai, vice president at Center for China and Globalization, criticizes the United States for playing a very negative and destabilizing role in terms of cross-Strait relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

As for the U.S.' recent moves to hinder several countries from switching diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, he thinks that the U.S. has demonstrated glaring double standards since it established diplomatic relations back in 1979 with the PRC by abandoning Taiwan as an ally, withdrawing all the U.S. troops from the island.

"I think there are people in Washington who are determined to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip in the geopolitical scheming of the United States," he says. "The United States is doing all they can to destabilize the situation."

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