China will continue to explore the possibility of luring away nations that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan in the wake of Sao Tome and Principe severing its ties with Taipei, two China experts said.
The African nation on Wednesday announced that it was ending its 19-year-old diplomatic ties with Taiwan amid reports that Taiwan had refused its request for US$210 million in aid.
Former American Institute in Taiwan director Douglas Paal said that before a planned visit next month by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to four of the nation’s allies in Central America — Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador — China could be exploring the possibility of luring them away, either now or during her visit.
Paal, who has recently visited both sides of the Taiwan Strait, said that there are some in Beijing who believe China should react more strongly to Tsai’s Dec. 2 telephone call to US president-elect Donald Trump.
Trump said later that he would not feel “bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
Heritage Foundation Asian Studies Center director Walter Lohman said that it must have been Sao Tome and Principe that took the initiative to get in touch with China and that he believes Beijing would continue to explore the possibility of luring away Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
Lohman said that other recent incidents, such as Beijing seizing a US underwater drone in the South China Sea, are all part of China’s reaction to the changes in the triangular relationship between the US, China and Taiwan. -
The focus now will be on when China and Sao Tome and Principe would establish diplomatic ties, he said, adding that the longer it takes, the more it will show that it was Sao Tome and Principe that took the initiative.
Lohman said China’s attitude toward Taiwan has been consistent since Tsai won the presidential election in January.
He said that China certainly is not happy with Trump’s recent moves, but added Beijing would observe developments and try to sway the new US government.
Taiwan now has just two African diplomatic allies — Swaziland and Burkina Faso — among its remaining total of 21, most of which are Central American and Pacific island nations.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS