Pacific leaders reaffirm support for Taiwan's right to attend regional forum

Pacific leaders have backed Taiwan's right to participate in the region's peak regional meeting, rejecting a push from China to exclude the democratically ruled island from the Pacific Islands Forum.

Beijing has been pressing Pacific Islands nations to strip Taiwan of its status as a "development partner" for the Pacific Islands Forum and to annul a 1992 agreement that allows it to meet with its remaining Pacific allies at the annual gathering.

Last year China's ambassador to the Pacific responded furiously when the Pacific reaffirmed the status quo, with the offending sentence taken out of the final communique — although Pacific officials insisted it was never meant to be in there in the first place.

China responds furiously after Pacific leaders reject bid to cut ties with Taiwan Ph