The Guardian: Boost for Beijing: pro-China president wins re-election in Kiribati

Taneti Maamau, who switched Kiribati’s allegiance from Taipei to Beijing last year, resoundingly re-elected

Taneti Maamau was re-elected on Monday to a second term as Kiribati’s president just two months after losing his parliamentary majority over his surprise move to recognise China and cut official relations with Taiwan.

The flip in September last year, four days after an identical switch by Solomon Islands, left Taiwan with only 15 countries that recognise it as a separate country.

The presidential vote was 26,053 ballots for Maamau against 17,866 for his challenger, lawyer Banuera Berina, according to officials in the capital Tarawa, as cited by Teburoro Tito, the Kiribati ambassador to the US and UN in New York.

Berina had pledged to reverse the diplomatic move.

Read more ....

Update #1: Kiribati's pro-China leader wins re-election in blow to Taiwan (Reuters)
Update #2: Kiribati chooses China over Taiwan in election that will ripple through the Pacific (SBS)

WNU Editor: I am willing to bet that most people do not even know that Kiribati is a country. But it is, and it is probably going to play an important role in satisfying China's ambitions in this region.