Diplomatic ties
May 20, the day on which Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to take office as president, is Independence Day in Timor-Leste, a Southeast Asian nation that once had close ties with Taiwan. In what was then Portuguese Timor, there was a consulate of the Republic of China in the capital, Dili, and a Chinese school used textbooks from Taiwan.
Sadly, following an Indonesian invasion, the ties were ended as many Sino-East Timorese fled to escape an occupation in which they were often targeted for mass killings. Despite their allegiance to Taipei, the government of then-Indonesian president Suharto saw these people as potential fellow travelers with the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, the left-wing independence movement that received verbal support from Beijing.
Following the end of Indonesian rule in 1999, there was talk of establishing a Taiwanese office or center in Dili, but China established what is now its embassy and Timor-Leste’s leaders adhere to a “one China” policy, issuing predictable joint communiques about the status of Taiwan. Even an unofficial Taiwanese delegation seeking to visit Dili was denied entry.
Recently there has been concern in Taiwan that Sao Tome and Principe, another former Portuguese colony, might restore ties with Beijing, given that not only has its president recently visited China, but a Chinese company is building a US$800 million deep-sea port in the nation.
This investment alone dwarfs the total amount of aid Taiwan has given to Sao Tome since 1997.
In addition, Sao Tome might seek to join the Macau Forum, which promotes economic cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking nations, from which it is excluded.
However, if these nations truly matter to Taiwan, the benefits from forging actual economic and cultural ties with all of them should outweigh the loss of political ties with one of them; but how much do they matter?
Apart from Sao Tome, the only such nation represented in Taiwan is Brazil. Portugal has no office in Taipei, although there is a Taiwan representative office in Lisbon and while it could probably establish one in the guise of its Portugal Global trade agency, money, as always, is an issue. It is likely to handle Taiwanese affairs from Macau, as do Angola and Mozambique, which also have consulates there.
Instead of an embassy in Sao Tome, there could be Taipei offices or centers in Timor Leste, as well as Angola and Mozambique. Although the days of these institutions having cryptic names with references to “Free China,” “the Far East” and “Sun Yat-sen” are largely a thing of the past, perhaps Taipei’s offices in Dili, Luanda or Maputo could use that historic name of Portuguese origin: “Formosa.”
Ken Westmoreland
Taunton, UK
The recent passing of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known to many as “Big S,” due to influenza-induced pneumonia at just 48 years old is a devastating reminder that the flu is not just a seasonal nuisance — it is a serious and potentially fatal illness. Hsu, a beloved actress and cultural icon who shaped the memories of many growing up in Taiwan, should not have died from a preventable disease. Yet her death is part of a larger trend that Taiwan has ignored for too long — our collective underestimation of the flu and our low uptake of the
For Taipei, last year was a particularly dangerous period, with China stepping up coercive pressures on Taiwan amid signs of US President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which eventually led his Democratic Party to force him to abandon his re-election campaign. The political drift in the US bred uncertainty in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region about American strategic commitment and resolve. With America deeply involved in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the last thing Washington wanted was a Taiwan Strait contingency, which is why Biden invested in personal diplomacy with China’s dictator Xi Jinping (習近平). The return of
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known affectionately as “Big S,” recently passed away from pneumonia caused by the flu. The Mandarin word for the flu — which translates to “epidemic cold” in English — is misleading. Although the flu tends to spread rapidly and shares similar symptoms with the common cold, its name easily leads people to underestimate its dangers and delay seeking medical treatment. The flu is an acute viral respiratory illness, and there are vaccines to prevent its spread and strengthen immunity. This being the case, the Mandarin word for “influenza” used in Taiwan should be renamed from the misleading
Following a YouTuber’s warning that tens of thousands of Taiwanese have Chinese IDs, the government launched a nationwide probe and announced that it has revoked the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship of three Taiwanese who have Chinese IDs. Taiwanese rapper Pa Chiung (八炯) and YouTuber Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in December last year released a documentary showing conversations with Chinese “united front” related agency members and warned that there were 100,000 Taiwanese holding Chinese IDs. In the video, a Taiwanese named Lin Jincheng (林金城), who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan and has become the head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park