Tang Songgen became the ambassador of PR China to Kiribati as the Central Pacific Nation switched ties from the Republic of China in 2019. The people of the atoll of Marakei welcomed him in mid-2020 through their unique custom: the visitor has to step on the hosts. The gesture seemingly requiring a degree of physical force was met by debate, as disrespect to locals was received by outside observers, particularly PRC critics.
I-Kiribati people went into defence: locals honour you as their visitor, and you refusing to be stepped onto would make you seen like dung to not step on. The i-Kiribati authors of an opinion piece published by The Guardian are well-aware of general public perceptions on stepping onto somebody, and since the public knows little about the country, let alone this custom, the authors demanded respect for the custom. Unfortunately, as my response to the piece, even if they are aware that Kiribati is caught in the geopolitical conflict between PRC and the West, the regime of the Communist Party will just exploit this defence and the i-Kiribati culture for its own political gains and interests. Given its disrespect for (or even genocide of) non-Han peoples like the Hui, the Mongols, the Uyghurs, the Kazakhs and the Tibetans, as well as foreigners like Africans, the i-Kiribati should not expect respect from the PRC.
Who first invited the Asian superpower? It was the regime of Taneti Maamau, who rules the country since 2016; I have written against his regime before, and the general situation is only deteriorating. Poverty, unemployment and higher living costs are aggravated by anthropogenic climate change as coasts are being eaten by "king tides". Oceania is home to countries leading climate advocacy, but where are the Taneti regime's priorities placed? Needing more money, Kiribati, along with Nauru, Tonga and the Cook Islands, find deep-sea mining as an opportunity, defying the resistance of Vanuatu, Palau, France, Chile and Costa Rica due to its detrimental effects to marine ecosystems; the Taneti regime supported mining industry-backed Michael Lodge for re-election as Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), but fortunately in the August 2024 vote he lost to Brazilian oceanographer-activist Leticia Carvalho. Deep-sea mining brings fortunes but at what cost, especially with disaster-vulnerable Kiribati being a possible direct victim? This is foolish investment.
Both PRC and ROC offer extensive aid to smaller countries, and as the latter gets increasing military pressure by the former, ROC aid may not last, giving the PRC the upper hand. The list of formal relations with the "free China" that wants to separate with the Mainland is shrinking; Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Nicaragua, Honduras and Nauru are the latest additions by the PRC, all having despotic systems (authoritarians in Paraguay and Eswatini are exceptions, but ROC cannot afford losing friends, yet it won't be a surprise if they also do the switch). Now the PRC is providing more to the Taneti regime: a plan to revive the airstrip in Kanton island, close to the USA-occupied state of Hawai'i (read more), as revealed by opposition leader Tessie Lambourne; and security cooperation to equip the Kiribati police with skills like martial arts and intelligence, and riot gear. What does the regime think? That the nation will experience an uprising or an armed rebellion so it needs to arm itself and quell dissent?
The mysterious death of a fisheries compliance officer led to investigations, but justice is far from reach, and any attempt to attain justice for anybody will be in vain as the Regime killed judiciary independence, all in the name of politics and intolerance to dissent. Consider High Court Justice David Lambourne, an Australian citizen; he was in an official trip in his home country and was not able to return to Kiribati due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He was then slowly stripped of his powers and then suspended in May 2022. When Chief Justice Bill Hastings, a Canadian, was to oppose the motion, he was also suspended; when the Court of Appeals also protested by declaring the motions unconstitutional, its members who were all Aotearoan were also suspended. When David Lambourne returned in 2022 he was planned to be deported in August, evolving into a standoff between the Regime and a pilot, but in April this year it still became his fate as Maneaba (Parliament) voted to oust him. Misconduct was his supposed offence, but how specifically had he done so? We are left in the dark, but his relationship with the opposition leader (Tessie is his wife) tells us a lot, if not all, even if the Regime rejects such belief.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is aware of this crisis and condemned the Taneti regime's decision, but a reply will be the usual lousy "internal affairs" excuse. For the regime and it's supporters, no foreigner should talk about its rights and governance issues, not even a piece like this, but I have to tell them that they should be ashamed because there are foreigners who care for Kiribati far more than they locals do. How can they care if they elect someone who can't manage environment, geopolitics, governance, economy and democracy properly? All these actions were only for money and power, while neither of these goes to the correct places and people.
I am reminded of the regime of Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), planning to reform the judiciary by letting people elect its officials so it would not have impediments in the plans of the succeeding regime (of ally Claudia Sheinbaum; I will write about these regimes later this month). This is also an attack against judicial independence; why should I place trust on the Mexican populace after veering the country towards dictatorships like in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia's Evo Morales? It's the same in Kiribati, exercising democracy to kill democracy, and now Taneti is to make a new shot to keep this going. The next elections will be a test not only for PRC and the West; in the first place this will be a test for either normalcy or continuity. The country has the regime and its allies trampling (not just stepping) it; the people have to decide whether to view slavishness as an honour or as deceit.
Article posted on 13 September 2024, 02:00 (UTC +08:00).
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