Micronesia Switching To Taiwan Over Chinese Blackmail, Bribery

China has been accused of bribing officials in a Pacific nation with envelopes of cash, free flights and alcohol in return for providing backing if it invades Taiwan.

Photo Insert: China, outgoing President David Panuelo said, had "demonstrated a keen capability to undermine our sovereignty, rejects our values, and uses our elected and senior officials for their own purposes."

The allegations were made in a bombshell letter to the national parliament by the president of Micronesia, a longstanding US ally in the Pacific, Nicola Smith reported for The Telegraph.

Reporting for Reuters, Kirsty Needham said the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) held talks with Taiwan in February about switching diplomatic ties for $50 million in assistance after frustrations with China, outgoing President David Panuelo revealed. of the Pacific island nation has said in a letter.

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported that Panuelo warned the incoming government about a barrage of threats that he believes risk making the sparsely populated island federation a vassal state.

Other leaders have slammed Beijing for the bad manners of its diplomats.

China, he said, had "demonstrated a keen capability to undermine our sovereignty, rejects our values, and uses our elected and senior officials for their own purposes." Panuelo claims his own cabinet colleagues transmitted recordings of bilateral meetings directly to China.

"We are bribed to be complicit, and bribed to be silent. That's a heavy word, but it's an accurate description regardless," he said. He also said he was personally followed by "two Chinese men" while attending a meeting in Fiji last July.

Beijing swiftly condemned the claims, accusing Panuelo of "smears and accusations" that "do not accord with the facts" as more Pacific island nations reject China, which former foreign minister Wang Yi apparently failed to win over.

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