The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday released its latest compilation of China's attempts to sabotage Taiwan's diplomatic efforts, such as Beijing's moves to lure Panama into its fold, an example also cited in the latest issue of The Economist magazine.
"According to the report by the El Panama-America on May 9, China's trade representative in Panama Li Yong-lu (李永祿) presumptuously claimed that [Chinese] investors will reduce their willingness to invest in Panama without the backup of diplomatic relations. So Panama should switch ties from Taiwan to China," said the report that went public on the ministry's Web site yesterday.
Li's remarks were coincidentally highlighted in a related article in the July 13th issue of The Economist magazine, which featured Panama's position in the tricky diplomatic tug-of-war between Taipei and Beijing through means of trade and investment.
"China is now trying to use its commercial heft to change Panama's diplomatic loyalties, and hopes the six other Central American countries will follow suit," the report said.
Taiwan's six other diplomatic allies in Central America are Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras.
The report also quoted Oyden Ortega, a former foreign minister now heading a business group lobbying for China, as saying: "Panama was blind, not knowing the importance of China."
Both Taipei and Beijing have a huge business interest in Panama because of the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Of the estimated US$450 million in Taiwanese investment over the past five years or so, a foreign ministry official said Taipei's Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運股份有限公司) has invested around US$110 million in developing a marine terminal at Cristobal located on the Atlantic side of the canal.
China became the third-largest user of the canal following the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, which over the years had shipping lines and banks already in operations in the isthmus.
"China was `pushing the boat along with the current' (
Aside from Panama's case, the ministry's report also revealed Beijing's moves earlier this year to ask Ireland and Argentina to disrupt Taipei's bid to seek observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the top decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Taipei's top representative in Madrid, Fransisco Ou (
"While some EU countries with economic bargaining chips are strong enough to handle pressure from China, Spain has more misgivings in its handling of the Taiwan issue," Ou told the press yesterday afternoon in Taipei.
Spain has lagged behind its EU counterparts in joining the feverish bandwagon in grabbing a fair share of the China market, not to mention its lack of resources and relatively weak position in world bodies such as the UN, Ou observed.
During the closed-door steering committee meeting of the WHA held in Geneva in May, two EU states, including Spain and France, opposed the inclusion of the proposal to discuss Taipei's bid on the assembly's agenda.
The foreign ministry's point-by-point report also claimed that China's disruption was the key factor leading up to the recent refusal of the Russian foreign ministry to grant visas to Vice President of the Academia Sinica Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) and National Science Council Chairman Wei Che-ho (魏哲和).
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