The recently held Kimberley Process Plenary in Brussels for the first time included Taiwan as a participant, as the country was acknowledged and granted observer status in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). Taiwan had been following the KPCS guidelines since 2003, but was excluded from participation and was forced to participate in past annual KPCS plenary meetings as a World Diamond Council (WDC) member; due to China’s opposition.%%Taiwanese officials mentioned that the EU helped advance their status. According to Chiang Shih-huang, Chief Secretary of Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, since Taiwan and China are members of the WTO and APEC, they can co-exist in the KPCS since its is a non-political framework focused on stemming the flow of conflict diamonds.