In an obvious show of displeasure with the Solomon Islands leadership's decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing, US Vice-President Mike Pence has reportedly canceled his planned meeting with the Pacific island country's prime minister on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York — or later in Washington.

The cancellation of the meeting, originally planned to discuss development partnerships, is just one of the "consequences" the Solomon Islands has to face for the switch, a US official was quoted by Reuters as saying.

To even suggest a country has to pay a price, no matter how heavy or small, for choosing a diplomatic partner is malfeasance. To actually punish a country for doing so is violation of its sovereignty. And the Solomon Islands is no puppet state, whose strings the United States can pull at will. As an independent, sovereign state, it has as much right as any other country, big or small, to decide what best serves its national interests and make its own diplomatic decisions.

The fact that the 27 lawmakers of the island country voted in favor of the switch, with six abstaining, on Monday shows an overwhelming majority of the people in that country support the diplomatic move — after all, the lawmakers are the representatives of the people.

So far, all except 16 countries in the world have established diplomatic relations with Beijing. In 1979, the US itself severed official ties with Taipei before establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing.

What Pence has done is not the first irrational move by the US administration. Perhaps the US believes that, by shifting their diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing, the countries are jeopardizing US interests. Last year, it recalled its top diplomats from three Latin American countries — the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama — after they cut off official ties with Taipei and established formal diplomatic relations with Beijing.

For those in Washington who still live in the Cold War era and believe China's diplomatic gain equals the US' loss need a wake-up call. Perched atop their ivory tower, the way such people have treated the countries that in recent years have established diplomatic ties with Beijing belies the US' claim that it favors bilateral relationships based on mutual respect, fairness and sovereignty as much as it exposes the US' hegemonic practices in international affairs.

China is the world's second-largest economy. That is more than enough reason for any country to have diplomatic relations with it. It is surprising the US does not understand this simple fact.