Anote Tong (in
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, 湯安諾;
pinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Tāng Ānnuò — his family name is of Chinese origin but it is now considered as Gilbertese by Kiribati people) (born 1952) is the
presidentThe President of Kiribati is the head of state and head of government of Kiribati.Following a general election, by which citizens elect the members of the House of Assembly, members select from their midst "not less than 3 nor more than 4 candidates" for the presidency. No other person may stand...
of
KiribatiKiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east.The...
. He won the election in July 2003 with a slim plurality of votes cast (47.4%) against his brother, Dr.
Harry TongDr. Harry Tong is an I-Kiribati politician.He was first elected to the House of Assembly of Kiribati in 1983, representing the constituency of South Tarawa, the country's capital. He was re-elected in 1987, but resigned from Parliament in 1989, before the end of his term...
(43.5%) and the private lawyer Banuera Berina (9.1%). The elections were contested by the opposition, due to allegations of
electoral fraudElectoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about a election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
but the High Court of
TarawaTarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. It is the location of the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, South Tarawa...
had confirmed that there was no fraud. He was easily re-elected on October 17, 2007, for a second term (64%).
The son of an
ChineseOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
migrant who settled in the Gilberts after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and of a Gilbertese woman, he went to
St Bede's CollegeSt. Bede's College is a Roman Catholic day and boarding school in Christchurch, New Zealand for boys aged 13 to 18 . St. Bede's is the oldest Roman Catholic Boys' College on New Zealand's South Island. It is also the only Catholic day and boarding college for boys on New Zealand's South Island....
for his secondary school education, graduated from Canterbury University with a degree in Science, and then gained a Masters in Economics degree from the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science, commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London in London, England....
.
During the campaign, he promised to review the lease of a spy and satellite tracking base used by the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
and "to take appropriate actions at the right time." On November 7, he established relations with the
Republic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, is a state in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition and jurisdiction over China into a democratic state with limited international recognition and jurisdiction only over Taiwan and minor islands, though it...
on
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
, which led the People's Republic of China to sever relations and vacate its satellite base nearly a month later.
Tong was overwhelmingly re-elected to his seat in parliament in the August 2007 parliamentary election. On October 17, 2007, he was
re-elected as presidentA presidential election was held in Kiribati on 17 October 2007, following the 2007 parliamentary election. President Anote Tong, who was re-elected to parliament in the first round of the parliamentary election, sought another term as president...
by a large majority. The opposition
boycotted the electionAn election boycott is the boycotting of an election by a group of voters, each of whom abstains from voting.Boycotting may be used as a form of political protest where voters feel that electoral fraud is likely, or that the electoral system is biased against its candidates, or that the polity...
due to the exclusion of two opposition candidates, including Tong's brother Harry.
He is married to a Kiribati woman named Meme and has seven children.
Speaking up on climate change
President Tong has attracted international attention by warning that his country may become uninhabitable by the 2050s due to rising sea levels and salination provoked by
climate changeClimate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average...
. Tong has stated on several occasions that Kiribati may cease to exist altogether, and that its entire population of 94,000 may need to be resettled as
climate refugeeA climate refugee is a displaced person caused by global warming related environmental disasters. Such disasters may be evidence of human-influenced ecological change and disruption to Earth's climate system, primarily through the emissions of green house gases, although other natural releases of...
s. In June 2008, he stated that Kiribati may already have reached "the point of no return"; he added: "To plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that."
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