TAIPEI -- As the Pacific Islands Forum prepared to open in Tuvalu this month, the normally regionally focused event found itself in an unfamiliar position: at the center of the growing strategic competition between Washington and Beijing.
Baron Waqa, president of Nauru, which has a population of less than 10,000, called for greater inclusion of unofficial U.S. ally Taiwan -- which Nauru recognizes -- in international forums. Meanwhile, speculation was rife that the government of the Solomon Islands was preparing to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.
