With the severing of official ties with Panama, Taiwan has lost an important diplomatic ally. While Taiwan may be diplomatically isolated, China is probably the only nation that is hostile toward it.
China has more than 100 diplomatic allies, many of which dislike it, and there is strong anti-Chinese sentiment. Even Russia — which China looks to like a big brother — constantly opposes China.
A Voice of America reporter in Moscow has published a commentary saying that Russia was doing all it could to help Vietnam develop its navy, including providing warships and building a warship maintenance harbor, because it wanted to block China’s momentum in the South China Sea.
Russia supplied Vietnam with upgraded Kilo-class submarines capable of surface attacks and firing ballistic missiles. Part of the deal was that building and delivering the submarines, as well as designing and building submarine bases, would be completed in an unprecedented short period of time.
The Hong Kong-based Cheng Ming magazine has also reported that as a part of US arms sales to Vietnam, Hanoi has made supervising and destroying the Yulin Naval Port east of Sanya in China’s Hainan Province its first priority.
One could say, then, that the US and Russia are working together to block Beijing’s expansion into the South China Sea.
China’s maritime Silk Road will also have to address obstruction by India. India has a closer relationship with Russia than it does with the US. Russia is certain to provide its most advanced weaponry to India before selling it to China, and it is only participating in military exercises with China to promote its new military equipment.
China and Russia spent years in talks about selling Sukhoi 35 planes to China.
The only purpose of the talks was that China wanted to get its hands on the aircraft’s start engine technology, which is why it wants to buy only two planes.
Russia insisted that it would only sell a batch of planes, and in 2015 it was decided that China would buy 24 planes. Four of them were delivered this year, but the start engine section was welded shut and would be completely destroyed if it is opened.
Early last month, residents in Irkutsk, close to the shores of Lake Baikal, initiated two online petitions demanding that the Russian government block Chinese companies from building water plants. Almost 300,000 people signed the two petitions.
Many big cities around the world have a Chinatown, but this is explicitly forbidden in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a background in the KGB, knows that a Chinatown flying the Five-Star Red Flag is the base for a Chinese fifth column.
In 2005, a Shanghai plan to invest US$1.5 billion in a real-estate project in St Petersburg was rejected.
Chinese businesspeople do not feel safe in Russia and Russia is worried about Chinese moving to Siberia to work as farmers. The 1.56 million square kilometers of land that China gave to Russia was a decision made following Beijing’s isolation in the wake of the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4, 1989, and China could use migrant workers to try to get it back.
However, the strongest anti-Chinese action occurred in February 2009, when the Chinese cargo ship Xinxing was sunk by Russian border guards. Three sailors were saved and seven were lost, and the Chinese government did not even dare file a complaint, but only entered “talks” and then left the matter unresolved. This has been followed by guns being fired at Chinese fishing boats, but in these instances, China has not made any show of “patriotism.”
China’s diplomatic failures cast a shadow over Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Forcing the Panama incident is just a matter of China going for the weaker and trying to divert attention because it is afraid of attacking those who are stronger.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under