Ever since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016, China has intensified efforts to poach Taiwan’s remaining allies. Honduras’ decision on Sunday to sever a bilateral relationship of more than 80 years came as a major setback.
Beijing’s political and economic clout makes it an irresistible attraction to Taiwan’s few allies. When China offered huge amounts of financial assistance that Taiwan was unable to match, Honduras switched allegiance to pursue Chinese investment in costly infrastructure projects.
As a result, Taiwan has 13 diplomatic allies remaining, including the Central American nations of Belize and Guatemala.
Beijing’s hardball diplomacy displays an obsession to force the world’s acceptance of China’s dominance over Taiwan as the new geopolitical norm.
A key winner of this diplomatic warfare is the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each diplomatic gain against Taiwan is a major departmental success. For each nation that changed diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, the ministry would secure additional resources to build a new embassy and launch new outreach programs abroad.
However, China’s diplomatic gains have outraged Taiwanese, who consider China more an aggressive bully than a peaceful neighbor. As next year’s presidential election nears, the hardball diplomacy is bound to jeopardize Beijing’s attempt to gain support for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and other pro-unification parties.
Despite the odds, all is not lost for Taiwan. Tsai’s transit through the US to Guatemala and Belize this week is immensely important as China squeezes Taiwan’s presence in international affairs.
The trip is an integral part of Tsai’s diplomatic activism, solidifying ties with allies in the western hemisphere and countering China’s mounting pressure.
In light of China’s missile launches and military drills following then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taipei in August last year, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has agreed to meet Tsai in Los Angeles. The high-profile meeting not only shows strong bipartisan support for Taiwan in Washington, but also enables Tsai to engage with top national policymakers on US soil.
At a time when the US is consolidating its Indo-Pacific agenda, it finds a natural partner in Taiwan.
This new thinking represents a bold US decision to include Taiwan into a rules-based system of sovereign nation-states, while maintaining a delicate balance of power in cross-strait relations.
Once the dust of the current diplomatic crisis settles, Taiwan and the US must formalize their growing ties in a manner that they deserve.
Only by doing so will Taiwan reaffirm its international status and participate in global alliances.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee is a professor of history at Pace University in New York.
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
Behind the gloating, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must be letting out a big sigh of relief. Its powerful party machine saved the day, but it took that much effort just to survive a challenge mounted by a humble group of active citizens, and in areas where the KMT is historically strong. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must now realize how toxic a brand it has become to many voters. The campaigners’ amateurism is what made them feel valid and authentic, but when the DPP belatedly inserted itself into the campaign, it did more harm than good. The
For nearly eight decades, Taiwan has provided a home for, and shielded and nurtured, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). After losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the KMT fled to Taiwan, bringing with it hundreds of thousands of soldiers, along with people who would go on to become public servants and educators. The party settled and prospered in Taiwan, and it developed and governed the nation. Taiwan gave the party a second chance. It was Taiwanese who rebuilt order from the ruins of war, through their own sweat and tears. It was Taiwanese who joined forces with democratic activists
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) held a news conference to celebrate his party’s success in surviving Saturday’s mass recall vote, shortly after the final results were confirmed. While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would have much preferred a different result, it was not a defeat for the DPP in the same sense that it was a victory for the KMT: Only KMT legislators were facing recalls. That alone should have given Chu cause to reflect, acknowledge any fault, or perhaps even consider apologizing to his party and the nation. However, based on his speech, Chu showed
RSS