TAIPEI: Concerns a Taiwan bird group was bent on promoting the Chinese-claimed island’s independence drove a British charity to ditch ties with them, according to letters published on Friday, as a complex geopolitical tangle entered the world of conservation.
Taiwan’s Chinese Wild Bird Federation (CWBF), since renamed the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation (TWBF), this month became the latest and unlikely frontline in Chinese efforts to assert sovereignty over the democratically-ruled island.
China has ramped up pressure on international groups and companies to refer to Taiwan as being part of China, to the anger of Taiwan’s government and many of its people.
In correspondence published by the TWFB on its website, the Cambridge-based BirdLife International said it was committed to “follow UN positions and protocols on…