爭光榮，強國愛欺小；分兩岸，偏愛血鑽石

【Comment】

幾個未被報導的重點：

Later in the day it's understood that a panel discussion with mining company executives was cancelled after it was continually disrupted by African delegations who supported the officials from China.

'The Chair had to withdraw the invitation to the Taiwanese following objections from China and several other delegations to the former's presence during the opening session, in order to enable the meeting to continue.

'Continual disruption to the proceedings in the opening session was regrettable and the Australian Government's concerns with respect to the behaviour of Chinese delegates have been raised with the Chinese Ambassador.'

On the same day as the controversy over the Perth meeting erupted, in which Chinese delegates used a microphone to interrupt the start of the meeting while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was on stage, it emerged Taiwan had been excluded from an annual meeting of the World Health Assembly.

It is the first time in eight years Taiwan has failed to receive an invitation to the peak health summit.

○()

中國外交部20170504記者會

问：1日，“金伯利进程”工作组联席会议在澳大利亚珀斯举行。据澳大利亚媒体报道，因台湾受邀与会，导致现场出现紧张情况。据称澳大利亚外交部已就此同中国驻澳大使进行了沟通。中方对此持何立场？双方是如何沟通的？

答：在台湾地区参与国际组织活动问题上，我们的立场是明确的、一贯的，那就是必须按照一个中国原则处理。2003年金伯利进程启动时，中方同进程达成谅解，中国台湾以“中国台北毛钻贸易实体”名义暂时执行进程证书制度，但台不是金伯利进程正式成员，不是观察员，也不得参加进程下属工作组或委员会会议。

本次金伯利进程工作组联席会议前，会议主办方单方面决定邀请台方以主席“客人”名义与会，违反进程有关规则。中方会前向主办方反复提出交涉，但中方合理关切未得到尊重。进程多数成员以及下属委员会、工作组也明确表达不赞同主办方作法的意见。但令人费解和遗憾的是主办方毫无触动，坚持已见。

中方在进程会议上对上述问题及有关安排表达关切，符合进程议事规则，合情合理。中方的立场和关切在会上也得到了很多成员的呼应和支持。

SHOUT DOWN Australian diplomats at a function hosted by Julie Bishop until rival Taiwanese group are kicked out    The DailyMail 20170504

• Chinese officials caused 'disgusting' scenes at Indigenous welcome ceremony
• They loudly disrupted international Kimberley Process Intersessional meeting
• They objected to attendance of Taiwanese delegation, who were later ejected
• The four-day meeting in Perth discussed prevention of conflict diamond trading

Chinese delegates have caused 'disgusting' scenes after loudly disrupting a welcome ceremony at an international meeting hosted by Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop.

Witnesses at the Kimberley Process Intersessional meeting say the Chinese representatives shouted over the official Indigenous ceremony and caused one session to be suspended.

The group objected to the attendance of the Taiwanese delegation, who were later ejected from the Kimberley Process meeting at the request of the Chinese officials, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The anarchy kicked off as senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official Robert Owen-Jones introduced the indigenous welcome ceremony and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, when the Chinese delegation took the microphone and loudly interjected.

The group were angry that the Taiwanese delegation were invited to the four-day meeting in Perth discussing the prevention of conflict diamond trading.

The Chinese officials said they had a point of order and demanded to know if everyone at the meeting had been 'formally invited', according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

They refused to quieten down and let the ceremony or Ms Bishop's speech proceed until their desired point of order was addressed as the first item on the agenda.

'It was disgusting,' an unnamed Australian attendee told The Sydney Morning Herald.

'It was extraordinary, so uncalled for and so inappropriate, and so disrespectful.' 

Later in the day it's understood that a panel discussion with mining company executives was cancelled after it was continually disrupted by African delegations who supported the officials from China.

The Taiwanese delegation were later asked to leave.

China doesn't recognise Taiwan's independence as a nation and still regards the island nation as an illegally seceded state.

When both groups are in attendance at international events, organisers often refer to Taiwan as an 'economy' rather than a county, or call Taiwanese delegations 'Chinese Taipei' to avoid conflict.

Australia invited the Rough Diamond Trading Entity of Chinese Taipei to attend the Kimberley Process as a guest of the Chair, with the invitation being 'consistent with Australia's One China policy', a spokesperson for DFAT told Daily Mail Australia.

'Australia invited the Rough Diamond Trading Entity of Chinese Taipei to attend the Kimberley Process in Perth as a Guest of the Chair, in line with earlier precedent.' 

'The Chair had to withdraw the invitation to the Taiwanese following objections from China and several other delegations to the former's presence during the opening session, in order to enable the meeting to continue.

'Continual disruption to the proceedings in the opening session was regrettable and the Australian Government's concerns with respect to the behaviour of Chinese delegates have been raised with the Chinese Ambassador.'

'Disgusting' and 'extraordinary' scenes as Chinese delegation shouts down welcome ceremony   SMH 20170503

Participants at an intergovernmental meeting hosted by Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop in Perth have described "disgusting" and "extraordinary" scenes as the Chinese government delegation shouted over the welcome to country ceremony and forced the suspension of proceedings.

A Taiwanese delegation was later ejected from the Kimberley Process meeting at the behest of the Chinese delegates who objected to their attendance.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it had raised concerns over the incident with the Chinese ambassador.

Participants at the Kimberley Process intersessional meeting have described extraordinary scenes as the Chinese delegation noisily disrupted the official Indigenous welcome ceremony and forced the suspension of at least one other session on Monday.

Members from the delegation used the microphone at their table to speak over the chairman of the meeting, senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official Robert Owen-Jones, as he tried to introduce the foreign minister Julie Bishop and the Indigenous welcome ceremony, attendees said.

The Chinese delegation said they had a point of order and demanded to know if everyone in the room had been "formally invited".

The interruptions continued until the agenda was changed to address the so-called "point of order" as the first item. Only then was the welcome to country permitted to go ahead, followed by Ms Bishop's speech.

"It was disgusting," said one high-level Australian attendee who asked that their name not be used. "It was extraordinary, so uncalled for and so inappropriate, and so disrespectful."

Fairfax Media understands that another session later in the morning involving a panel discussion with executives from mining companies was abandoned altogether because of continual interruptions by various African delegations in support of the Chinese position.

Backroom negotiations between the Chinese and the Australian parties ensued, then the Taiwanese delegation was asked to leave. The conference program resumed.

The Kimberley Process is an international meeting first convened in 2000 aimed at stopping the trade in conflict diamonds and to prevent the diamond trade from funding violence by insurgent movements.

Taiwan was granted observer status in 2007.

This is the first time Australia has chaired the four-day intersessional meeting.

A spokeswoman for DFAT said Australia had invited the Rough Diamond Trading Entity of Chinese Taipei to attend the Kimberley Process in Perth as a guest of the Chair, "in line with earlier precedent". She said the invitation was consistent with Australia's One China policy.

"The chair had to withdraw the invitation to the Taiwanese following objections from China and several other delegations to the former's presence during the opening session, in order to enable the meeting to continue.

"Continual disruption to the proceedings in the opening session was regrettable and the Australian government's concerns with respect to the behaviour of Chinese delegates have been raised with the Chinese ambassador."

Because China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that will eventually return to the motherland, Taiwanese attendance at international forums has become a proxy battleground over Taiwan's nation status.

Official Taiwanese presence at international forums is usually restricted to observer status as "Chinese Taipei" or, as the 18th largest economy in the world by GDP, Taiwan is sometimes invited as an "economy" rather than a nation.

A spokesman for the Chinese consulate general in Perth said: "The head of the Chinese delegation expressed high respect for the traditional owners of the land and the welcome to country at the opening session of the Kimberley Process Intersessional Meeting 2017."

He said there were clear rules and procedures regarding the meeting and that the invitation to the Taiwan entity had been withdrawn "after consultations".

Taiwan thanks Australia for diamond invitation, as Beijing unhappy  SMH 20170504

Ceijing: The Taiwan government says it will write to thank Australia for its invitation to a 'conflict diamonds' meeting in Perth, despite Taiwanese "observers" being ejected at the request of China.

Chinese media has reported the Perth incident as part of the escalating diplomatic tension between China and Taiwan, and has claimed Australia should have been aware that Chinese tolerance of Taiwan's international participation had changed.

The behaviour of the Chinese delegates, who interrupted an indigenous 'welcome to country', was described as "disgusting" by some attendees at the Kimberley Process meeting. The foreign ministry swiftly raised concerns with China's ambassador to Australia.

But Beijing has responded by saying the expression of China's objections was "perfectly reasonable and fair".

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman instead criticised Australia's "indifference" to Chinese complaints about Taiwan's involvement before the meeting began as "confusing and regrettable".

Taiwan and China's long-running battle over international participation by Taiwan, which China sees as a renegade province, has reached fever pitch since the election of the independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party as president in 2016.

On the same day as the controversy over the Perth meeting erupted, in which Chinese delegates used a microphone to interrupt the start of the meeting while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was on stage, it emerged Taiwan had been excluded from an annual meeting of the World Health Assembly.

It is the first time in eight years Taiwan has failed to receive an invitation to the peak health summit.

Tsai's government, which blames Chinese lobbying, said it would "gate crash" the May 22 meeting in Geneva if an invitation fails to arrive.

Taiwan's inclusion as an "observer" at the WHA in 2009 was seen as a milestone by Taiwan, paving the way for its participation in the international community.

On Thursday, Ms Tsai was mocked on the front page of Beijing's Global Times newspaper, after she told media in Taiwan "the mainland needs to carefully handle this, otherwise the cross-straits relationship will suffer".

Taiwan's deputy minister for foreign affairs Javier Hou told the Taipei Times that China "has resorted to every conceivable means to block Taiwan from international affairs".

The Taiwanese observers had no choice but to withdraw from the Perth meeting, and instead attended bilateral talks, to allow the conference to proceed, he said.

Fairfax Media reported that African delegates had joined China's interruptions.  China is a significant aid donor and infrastructure supplier to Africa.

Taiwan "understands what had happened, but insists it had the right to attend the meeting," Mr Hou told the Taipei Times.

Taiwan's foreign ministry would write to the Australian government to make clear its stance and express gratitude for the invitation, he said.

China's foreign ministry in Beijing retorted: "Taiwan is neither the participant nor observer of Kimberley Process, and shall not attend meetings of its working groups or committees."

The foreign ministry spokesman claimed Australia, as host, "unilaterally decided to invite Taiwan to attend as a "guest" of the Chair, which violated relevant rules of the process".

"It is confusing and regrettable that the host was completely indifferent and held on to its own view."

The Global Times has cited a Chinese cross-straits relations "expert" as saying the Perth incident shows China will increasingly block Taiwan from participating in international meetings because Ms Tsai refuses to recognise the "1992 consensus" on One China.

Ni Yong Jie, deputy head of Shanghai's Taiwan Research Institute, said Australia hadn't understood that relations between Taiwan and China had significantly deteriorated and were "very different to the past".

Taiwan's minister for health, Chen Shih-chung, has meanwhile threatened to send a Taiwanese delegation to Geneva on May 22, and hold an international news conference to highlight Taiwan's exclusion from the World Health Assembly.

Ms Tsai, who irritated Beijing by telephoning Donald Trump before his inauguration as US President, has taken to social media to highlight the apparent World Health Assembly snub.