Taiwan has diplomatic relations with 22 countries. Twenty-one of these are developing countries in the South Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome, Swaziland, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent. Only one of them is developed and in Europe: The Holy See, whose territorial residence is the Vatican.
The Republic of China (ROC) established official diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1942, during World War II. Their smooth diplomatic relationship continued when the ROC fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese Civil War. Today, the Holy See is the only country in Europe that does not have diplomatic relations with China.
If Taiwan does not play its cards right, the Vatican might jump ship and establish relations with the giant bully on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
Since the 1990s, while aggressively courting foreign trade and investment amid a wave of economic reforms in the early 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party began forcing nations around the world to choose between either maintaining diplomatic relations with Taipei or Beijing.
Then, last month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suddenly indicated that the Vatican might be moving closer to establishing diplomatic relations with China. In addition, Hong Kong media outlets reported that Hong Kong Cardinal John Tong Hon (湯漢) said that “the Vatican and China might have reached a preliminary agreement on the appointment of bishops” in China.
However, salvation might be around the corner. Tomorrow, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) is to visit the Vatican to attend the canonization of Mother Teresa and convey to the pope the congratulations of Taiwanese and Catholics nationwide. Chen, a devout Catholic, has been invited to the Vatican several times and has met Pope Francis and former popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II.
Considering Chen’s lengthy and excellent relationship with the Vatican, I wrote him a letter at the end of last month, as president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) — a US-based grassroots organization that promotes freedom, human rights and democracy for the people of Taiwan — imploring him, when in Rome, to call upon the Pope to move toward “dual recognition” of Taiwan and China.
I wrote him that such dual diplomatic recognition of both Taipei and Beijing would entail embracing Chinese and not abandoning the 23 million Taiwanese, and would be a way to foster and encourage peaceful coexistence and mutual respect between Taiwan and China. In addition, it would set a precedent for other nations to emulate.
Pope Francis played a critical initiating role in getting the establishment of US-Cuba diplomatic relations on track. It therefore makes a lot of sense that the pope takes the lead in officially recognizing that Taiwan and China are two countries on either side of the Taiwan Strait that the international community wants to see develop into friendly neighbors.
For Taiwan to lose the Vatican as its diplomatic ally could set Taiwan on a precarious road. A cutting off of official diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the Vatican might cause a domino effect, and the rest of Taiwan’s allies might follow.
We at FAPA therefore urge Chen to use his good offices next week to call upon the pope to move toward “dual recognition.” It is an idea that is not only long overdue, it is now or never.
Peter Chen is president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US