October 26, 2005
By Michael Field in Port Moresby
   A spooky trio of Chinese diplomats are refusing to leave Kiribati two years after the central Pacific nation opened diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
   “It is strange, the whole thing is strange,” Kiribati President Anote Tong told Fairfax in Papua New Guinea where he is attending the Pacific Forum with, among others, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
   Mr Tong, who is part Chinese, came to power in a bitter election against his brother Harry Tong in which the presence of a Chinese satellite monitoring base was a key issue.   When Anote Tong won the election he closed the base on Tarawa, which played an early role in China’s manned space programme, and opened diplomatic ties with Taiwan. He did not cut ties with China but Beijing, which maintained a large embassy building on the island, refused to recognise the change.
   President Tong said three Chinese diplomats had stayed in the building and were refusing to leave.
   “They are still camped there,” he said.

“For us it is a cause of concern. Being there suggests they are waiting for a change of government and a change of diplomatic relations.”
   He said the Chinese were interfering in domestic issues and had given out political pamphlets against the government.
   “I am sure if we did this in Beijing we would be in jail in half a second,” he said.
   “There are things happening now that have never happened in the past.”
   But he said they never left the building.
   “We don’t know what they do. I think they should go and do something useful at home.

Copyright: Michael Field