Taiwan should remain vigilant against a possible "domino effect" likely to be triggered among Taipei's diplomatic allies after China lured Nauru's president to Beijing's fold with promises of US$137 million to the debt-stricken country, analysts warned yesterday.
"Nauru's decision to establish diplomatic ties with China is not surprising at all in my opinion," said Wu Tung-yeh (
"What worries me is that the case might trigger a `domino effect' among Taiwan's existing allies," Wu cautioned.
Panama and Haiti allegedly have faced lobbying pressure from Beijing recently to switch ties from Taipei to Beijing, sources said.
Chou Shi-hsiung (
"We should try to avoid a `domino effect' triggered by this incident," said Chou, who has just returned to Taipei after his ten-month stay in Washington as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Both analysts expressed their views in a panel discussion held yesterday at the foreign ministry.
Chou urged the foreign ministry to enhance its risk-management with allied countries that are allegedly ready to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Peter Cheng (鄭博久), director-general of the ministry's department of East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the government has already begun preventive measures in the Pacific region.
Taiwan has recently secured visits to Taipei by high-ranking officials from the rest of the four countries in the South Pacific region that recognize Taipei since China began to offer lucrative incentives to Nauru to lure the tiny state to forge formal ties with Beijing, Cheng said.
These four countries are the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu as well as the Fiji Islands.
Although some have argued that Taiwan should endeavor to lure another country to turn its back on Beijing -- regardless of costs involved -- to retaliate against China's diplomatic coup in the case of Nauru, Wu opposed such a move.
"Taiwan simply could not afford to do so as it did 10 years ago. And there is little chance that we'll outperform China if we intend to `buy' another country," Wu conceded.
Worse yet, the increasing diplomatic tools China has possessed over the years would increase pressure on Taiwan to tackle Beijing's sabotage on the diplomatic front, analysts said.
Aside from unchecked withdrawal of cash from the Chinese government's financial coffers to lure Taipei's allies to come into its fold, Beijing could also press Taipei's allies by emphasizing its position as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, they said.
"It would be wishful thinking if we want to urge Beijing to reach a truce with us on diplomatic fronts," Wu said.
"China as an enormous power possesses various diplomatic tools we can't compete with ... Serving as Taiwan's diplomat is perhaps the hardest job in the world," conceded a foreign ministry official outside of the panel discussion.
Analysts and lawmakers said Taipei should not lapse into "the myth" surrounding the number of diplomatic allies Taiwan needs to secure its international standing, adding that resources should be diverted somewhere else.
"Instead of buying these tiny states, we should invest our resources in multilateral international organizations as well as ties with countries of significance," Wu said.
"Taiwan's resources should not be wasted on small countries such as Nauru," said Chou, a view soon echoed by PFP lawmaker Sun Ta-chien (孫大千).
DPP legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
But retaining certain numbers of diplomatic allies, Wu said, means a lot to politicians.
"If the number of Taiwan's diplomatic allies drops to 21 by 2004 when President Chen Shui-bian (
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by