Taiwan has severed diplomatic ties with the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, blaming China for trying to shame President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) after his election victory.
Dominica, a diplomatic ally of 21 years, had established ties with the People's Republic of China (PRC) on March 23.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
"The ROC government expressed strong displeasure and regret about the Dominican government's decision to establish diplomatic ties with the PRC under the latter's threats and allurement," said ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦).
China's official Xinhua news agency disclosed at 12:10am yesterday that Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) and Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit signed a joint communique on the establishment of diplomatic ties in Beijing on March 23.
Chien blasted China's snatching away another Taiwanese ally as a deliberate act to shame Chen after he won the presidential election.
"In June 2001, China established diplomatic ties with Macedonia when President Chen was visiting Latin America. In July 2002, China established diplomatic relations with Nauru on the same day President Chen took over the Democratic Progressive Party chairmanship," Chien said.
After Macedonia, Nauru and Liberia, Dominica became the fourth ally Taiwan lost to China during Chen's term. The loss of the Caribbean state, however, sent shockwaves through the ministry, which has long viewed Latin America as a diplomatic stronghold.
Taiwan's relations with Dominica began to deteriorate after Skerrit was appointed prime minister on Jan. 8, two days after former prime minister Pierre Charles died of a heart attack.
Barely a week after Skerrit became prime minister, he asked Taiwan to give US$58 million in aid to his country. The aid package Skerrit demanded far exceeded the original amount Taiwan had agreed to provide for the two countries' cooperation projects, Chien said.
When asked by Taiwanese diplomats to reduce the aid package to a reasonable amount, Skerrit threatened to establish diplomatic ties with China, Chien said.
"In Skerrit's speech to the nation yesterday [Monday], he told his people that China has given the country US$117.5 million in aid," Chien said, adding that Skerrit said the money would be used for construction of public facilities such as hospitals, schools and roads.
"Skerrit, only 32, does not fully understand international politics and harbors undue expectations of China ... Taiwan doesn't want to join a checkbook diplomacy race with China," Chien said.
From January to this month, Taiwanese diplomats had been striving to dissuade Skerrit from building ties with Beijing through senior Dominican officials' help. But the efforts were in vain, Chien said.
Noting Dominica, with a population of around 70,000, has neither strategic nor economic significance to China, Chien said the only purpose of China's work to establish diplomatic ties with the Caribbean state was to achieve its goal of "eliminating the ROC."
"China wants to destroy all our diplomatic ties to virtually wipe out Taiwan's space for existence in the international community. But its behavior would neither help cross-strait relations nor earn the 23 million Taiwanese people's affection," Chien said.
Chen and Premier Yu Shyi-kun were informed of Dominica's move early yesterday morning.
Although Dominica switched diplomatic relations to Beijing, its foreign ministry still sent a congratulatory note on Chen's re-election, Chien said.
At a ministry press conference at 10:30am, Chien, Javier Hou (
Grace Tong (
Hou said that, since February, Taiwanese diplomats have been keeping a close eye on Tong, whose business in Dominica had been suffering. She served as Antigua and Barbuda's representative to China and began working secretly to forge China's ties with Dominica, Hou said.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS