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Allies vital to survival: minister

When Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) secretly flew to Castries, the capital of St. Lucia, last month, his delicate task was to convince the Caribbean island to turn its back on China.

A day later, Huang appeared in public to announce a mission accomplished: St. Lucia had restored diplomatic ties with Taiwan after 10 years.

"It was a tug of war," Huang said in an interview on Tuesday in Taipei.

"Of course my job is tough, very tough," he said. "Taiwan aspires to be a normal country in the world. China tries every means to stop it."

Mark Chen (陳唐山), a former foreign affairs minister and currently head of the National Security Council, said: "China is always doing everything possible to shrink or minimize our position by stealing away countries which are friendly to us."

"So when you say that being the minister of foreign affairs of Taiwan is the most difficult position, this is the case," he added.

silly?

Fighting over recognition from small nations can seem silly but it's necessary for Taiwan's survival, Huang said.

"Suppose Taiwan had no diplomatic ties at all," he said. "That would justify what China has been saying: Taiwan isn't a sovereign, independent state, it's just a local government."

Chen says that's reason enough to continue the battle.

"China is trying to bring us to our knees," Chen said. "Eventually they can say, `Ha ha, nobody recognizes you, how can you call yourself a country?"

`interference'

In response to St. Lucia's diplomatic switch, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) called it a "brutal interference in China's internal affairs," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

St. Lucia's reversal followed a general election in December that returned the party of Prime Minister John Compton, 82, to power. Compton's government recognized Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s. Huang made a covert trip to the island last December and flew in secretly again on April 28 to clinch a deal.

Dollar diplomacy played a role. When China got St. Lucia's recognition in 1997, it promised to build a sports stadium, an industrial zone and a psychiatric hospital.

To get the country back, Taiwan offered agricultural technology, a boost in the tourism industry and education on information technology, Huang said.

dollar diplomacy

Precise details had yet to be ironed out and he couldn't give a dollar figure for how much aid Taiwan will give.

Huang denied that Taiwan gives out suitcases of cash to woo foreign governments and said China could always spend more.

"There's no way we can compete with China in dollar diplomacy," Huang said, citing the billions of dollars Beijing has pledged in aid and loan write-offs to African and South Pacific island in recent months.
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