Taiwan to test China by meeting allies

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will lead a summit this year with six diplomatic allies, officials said on Tuesday, a tough first for the normally China-friendly president as Beijing claims the island and opposes its reach overseas.

President Ma Ying-jeou will head up the Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit in the Solomon Islands on October 20, Solomons ambassador Beraki Jino said. It would be his first substantive trip overseas to meet Taiwan's tiny but strategically important diplomatic partners.

China, which claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and has threatened to take it by force if necessary, had competed strongly with Taiwan for foreign allies before Ma took office last year and declared a diplomatic "cease-fire" as part of a broader detente effort that has liberalised trade.

Taiwan has only 23 mostly impoverished allies in Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific, compared with China's 170, including the world's most powerful nations.

Taiwan must keep up relations with its allies, which are seen offering international legitimacy in exchange for development aid, while keeping China happy, analysts say.

Last year's summit was cancelled as Ma courted China.

Former president Chen Shui-bian, an anti-China firebrand, played up diplomatic meetings as a gesture of sovereignty.

"I think the summit will be very low key," said Shane Lee, a political science professor at Chang Jung University in Taiwan. "Ma is trying to show goodwill to China, so it doesn't want to emphasise the sovereignty of Taiwan."

South Pacific allies, some of which face substandard health care systems or the threat of being swallowed into the sea due to global warming, will ask Taiwan to make its positions clear and break new ground in the region, Jino said.