Dear Editor,
In your edition of 4th March 2023 it was reported that the Minister of Provincial Government has issued a letter to the former Premier of Malaita Province, Mr Suidani, to show cause why he should not be disqualified as a provincial member on the grounds that he has by his own act shown allegiance to a foreign power, namely, as the Minister put it, Chinese Taipei, or, as we more usually refer to it, Taiwan.
This begs the interesting question as to what is a foreign power.
When the Solomon Islands Government switched from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China it presumably acknowledged Beijing’s position that Taiwan is a part of China. It is not a separate state or country. That being so, how could Mr Suidani have been under allegiance to a foreign power when, on SIG’s own case, Taiwan is a part of China. If SIG does not acknowledge that Taiwan is a foreign power how could Mr Suidani have been under allegiance to it?
Andrew Radclyffe
