International

The front lines of climate change

Prime Minister of Barbados, The Hon. Mia Amor Mottley and the Prime Minister of the Bahamas The Hon. Philip Davis

Nassau – Several Caribbean leaders are gathered in The Bahamas this week for the Regional Meeting to Prepare for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt in November.

This is a strong showing of leadership on this matter and Prime Minister Philip Davis, who has made the climate change issue a focus of his, is no doubt pleased to be hosting high-level colleagues for the talks.

In so doing, Davis is building on the work previous Bahamian prime ministers have done to raise global awareness on the impact of climate change on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like The Bahamas.

Almost three years to the day after powerful Category 5 Hurricane Dorian ripped though the northwestern Bahamas, leaving billions of dollars in damage, the island nation Tuesday welcomed delegates from 17 Caribbean countries and international financing institutions to a two-day high-level summit to address the climate crisis.

The historic meeting, hosted by the Bahamas at a resort in Nassau, comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Conference, more commonly referred to as COP 27, in November in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The goal, said Prime Minister Philip Davis, who lauded the recent passage of the massive climate change bill in the U.S. Congress, is for Caribbean leaders to speak with one voice.

“Our goal is to construct practical financing solutions, ones that help us move forward rather than lead to further indebtedness,” Davis said at an opening press conference. “I remain optimistic about our collective ability to meet the challenge of climate change.”

Davis said while there is no country on earth where the impact of climate change cannot be felt, for small islands and nations like the Bahamas and others in the Caribbean, “the threat is existential. Get unlimited digital access Subscribe now for just $2 for 2 months. CLAIM OFFER “This is the front lines,” he said, citing a report that showed that sea levels rose last year more swiftly in the Caribbean region than anywhere else in the world. The Bahamas and other nations in the Caribbean know they need to rebuild for resiliency and to adapt to the realities of a warming planet, the prime minister added, a task made harder by the impact of a storm like Dorian, which ripped through the country over Labor Day weekend in 2019. “That one storm alone cost our small country billions of dollars,” Davis said. “In fact half our country’s debt can be linked to hurricane damage.”

On the ground, however, many Bahamians do not see the issue as a priority item, notwithstanding the horrific videos that circulated on social media as Hurricane Dorian pounded the Abacos and Grand Bahama in September 2019, and the widespread coverage of its destruction.

For many, cost of living issues are more urgent, as is the case elsewhere.

In April, CBS News reported that with issues like the economy and inflation, crime, and the war in Ukraine weighing most on Americans’ minds, the percentage who think climate change needs to be addressed right now has dipped some since one year ago, but most Americans do think it’s an issue that needs to be addressed now or at least in the next few years.

The European Commission reported on a survey last year that showed that European citizens identify climate change as the single most serious problem facing the world.

Multiple studies have shown that SIDS are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. While these small states contribute least to global warming, they stand to suffer the most.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development noted in March that for SIDS to survive climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, they need to adopt an integrated approach that

promotes economic diversification, innovative financing instruments, and scaling up the blue economy.

It is a message that Davis and colleagues continue to promote as the need for urgent action by small and large states becomes even more urgent.

Our very survival depends on what is done collectively to address the crisis now.

Last August, a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years.

Researchers found that climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe with human influence contributing to many observed changes in weather and climate extremes.

The report projected that in the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions.

IPCC predicted that coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st Century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century.

For SIDS, there are special concerns and interests.

Addressing the climate conference yesterday, Davis stated, “If we advance our interests merely as individual Small Island Developing States, our voices will be dispersed, unable to be heard above louder, wealthier, carbon-producing interests.”

He noted that the Caribbean has been identified as the region with the largest number of indebted countries, due in many cases to borrowing associated with recovery efforts from the impact of climate change.

The prime minister also pointed out that many Caribbean states have already faced challenges in accessing climate-related funds.

“By acting in common cause, we can move with more authority and with greater impact to address legacy issues which have held us back from making meaningful progress,” Davis said.

“… Let us work together to construct a joint solution in respect of climate risk insurance and other climate risk facilities. And let us take practical steps to improve access to climate finance.”

The Bahamas and regional states are wise to strengthen their joint approach in placing the interests of SIDS at the forefront of the global climate agenda.

The urgency of this existential threat cannot be overstated.

International

TAIWAN’S LINK TO CHINA REITERATED BY ZHU FENGLIAN

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Tuesday slammed the Taiwan region’s leader, Lai Ching-te, for his recent “motherland fallacy,” reiterating that Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of China.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided.

The fact that the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China has never changed and will never be allowed to change, she added.

What has caused the Taiwan question? And why is Taiwan an inalienable part of China’s territory? Here are some facts you should know.

Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times

Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. The earliest written account of Taiwan was in the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer, compiled more than 1,700 years ago by Shen Ying of the State of Wu during the period of the Three Kingdoms.

Starting as early as the mid-12th century, Chinese governments of different periods set up administrative bodies to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan.

The Song Dynasty set up a garrison in Penghu, putting the territory under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture. The Yuan Dynasty installed an agency of patrol and inspection in Penghu to administer the territory. During the mid- and late-16th century, the Ming Dynasty reinstated the once abolished agency and sent reinforcements to Penghu to ward off foreign invaders.

In 1662 (under Qing Emperor Kangxi), General Zheng Chenggong established Chengtian Prefecture on Taiwan. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty government expanded the administrative structure in Taiwan. In 1727 (under Qing Emperor Yongzheng), the administration on the island was reconstituted as the Prefecture Administration of Taiwan and incorporated the new Penghu Canton. The territory then officially became known as Taiwan. In 1885 (under Qing Emperor Guangxu), the government formally made Taiwan a full province.

Taiwan was ceded due to Japan’s aggression

However, through a war of aggression against China in April 1895, Japan forced the defeated the Qing government to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China. In December 1941, the Chinese government issued a declaration of war against Japan, announcing to the world that all treaties, conventions, agreements and contracts regarding relations between China and Japan had been abrogated and that China would recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese, U.S. and British governments, stipulating that Japan should return to China all the territories it had stolen from the Chinese, including northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

The Potsdam Proclamation, signed by China, the U.S. and Britain in 1945 (later adhered to by the Soviet Union), stipulated that “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.” In August 1945, Japan surrendered and promised that it would faithfully fulfill the obligations laid out in the Potsdam Proclamation.

On October 25, 1945, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. From that point forward, China had recovered Taiwan de jure and de facto through a host of documents with international legal effect.

Two sides of the Straits belong to one China

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The new government replaced the previous Kuomintang (KMT) regime, becoming the successor to the Republic of China (1912-1949) and the only legitimate government of the whole of China.

As a natural result, the government of the PRC should enjoy and exercise China’s full sovereignty, which includes its sovereignty over Taiwan, according to a white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” published by the Chinese government in 2022.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that both the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation stated in explicit terms that all the territories Japan had stolen from the Chinese, such as Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, shall be restored to China, and this constitutes an important part of the post-war international order.

Speaking at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in late September, Wang told world leaders in the audience that Taiwan being “an inalienable part of China’s territory” is both “the history and the reality.”

Noting the 26th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 in 1971 with an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN, to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, and to expel forthwith the representatives of the Taiwan region from the UN and all the organizations related to it, Wang said “once and for all, the resolution resolved the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN.”

The resolution, Wang continued, made clear that there is no such thing as “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

“On this matter of principle, there is no gray zone or room for ambiguity,” Wang said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed on many occasions that the one-China principle is the political foundation for cross-Straits relations.

Xi said that compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same Chinese nation during a meeting with Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese KMT party, in April.

“The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation recorded successive generations of ancestors moving and settling down in Taiwan, and people from across the Straits fighting side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders,” Xi said.

“The distance of the Straits cannot sever the bond of kinship between compatriots from across the Straits, and the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Straits belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification,” he said.

International

One-China principle is consensus of international community

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that no matter what they say or do, the Lai Ching-te authorities cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to the speech by the leader of the Taiwan region, Lai Ching-te, today at a daily press briefing.

Mao said Lai Ching-te’s words attempt to sever the historical connections between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. He is again peddling various versions of the “Taiwan independence” narrative, such as “China and Taiwan are not subordinate to each other” and “Taiwan has sovereignty.”

It once again exposes that he is hellbent on advancing “Taiwan independence” and has the ill intention of heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits for his selfish political interest, Mao said.

There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, Mao said, adding that the attempt to seek independence and make provocations will lead nowhere.

Noting that the one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and prevailing international consensus, Mao said Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country and thus has no so-called sovereignty.

Upholding the one-China principle, opposing “Taiwan independence” and opposing “two Chinas” and “one China, one Taiwan” is our consistent position on the Taiwan region’s external exchanges and participation in international activities, she said.

“Let me stress once again that China opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China and interference in China’s internal affairs in any way and under any excuse,” Mao said.

We urge the few foreign politicians who visit Taiwan to correct their wrong words and deeds, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs, and stop conniving at and supporting “Taiwan independence” and heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits, she said. (PR/GIS)

International

SENIORS CELEBRATED AT THE SOUBLE NINTH FESTIVAL

China honours its elders

Across China, seniors are joyfully celebrating the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional holiday that falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This day, officially recognized as Senior’s Day, embodies new meanings of respect, care and support for the elderly. Communities are hosting vibrant events such as long-table banquets, singing competitions and dance performances, all filled with joy and harmony. Let’s honor our elders and cherish their wisdom as we come together in celebration.