Chinese diplomats left Australia’s ruling Labor Party 50th National Conference on Thursday, July 23, after complaining to the party’s national secretary about the presence of two officials from Taiwan’s representative office at the event.

Taiwan’s representative office in Australia, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, confirmed with the Central News Agency on Friday, July 24, that two staff members from the office attended the Australian Labor Party’s National Conference held in Adelaide.

Australia’s public broadcaster ABC reported that Taiwanese representatives attended the event as observers. This prompted Chinese diplomats to express their displeasure to Labor Party National Secretary Paul Erickson and demand that the Taiwanese officials be removed from the venue. However, Erickson stood firm in upholding the right of Taiwan’s representative office staff to attend. The Chinese diplomats subsequently left.

Diplomatic observers at the conference told the ABC that it was hard to interpret the action as anything other than a deliberate protest.