Almost two weeks ago the government of China, in an attempt to undermine St. Lucia’s recognition of Taiwan’s sovereignty, gave the tiny Caribbean island $1 million for textbooks for its 13,000 high school students.
Within days, Taiwan showed up at St. Lucia’s door, offering its help, including money.
“Our ambassador was instructed to talk to the prime minister, in friendly terms, to see if we could help them solve their problems,” a Taiwanese diplomat in Latin America said.
In this specific instance of Taiwanese-Chinese rivalry, Taiwan proved the victor, protecting its recognition and mutually friendly relations with St. Lucia. But victory can be fleeting.
For decades, Taiwan has been plying the financially strapped countries of the Caribbean and Central America with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, military assistance and outright gifts to retain them as allies in its diplomatic war with China.
As the U.S. has scaled back its financial aid overseas, the region has become an intense political battleground between Beijing and Taipei. China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, is attempting to undermine Taipei’s bid to obtain international legitimacy and regain its seat in the United Nations. Beijing’s ultimate goal is to hasten the day Taiwan is reunited with mainland China.
Of the 30 countries that recognize Taiwan, compared with 155 for China, 14 are in the Caribbean and Central America–the largest bloc of support for Taiwan in the world.
But as China increases its international economic and political influence, Taiwan’s influence diminishes. Every year, another country that recognized Taipei as the official government of China switches its allegiance to Beijing, chipping away at Taiwan’s international standing.
In their battle for diplomatic influence, the chief weapon of choice, it seems, is money.
While Taipei has at its disposal billions of dollars to assist its friends, China has all the formidable political clout that goes with occupying a seat on the UN Security Council, and it does not hesitate to use it.
In May, for example, the Bahamas switched its recognition to Beijing after a Hong Kong conglomerate agreed to pump $175 million in investments into the Bahamas.
“The decision by the Bahamas,” the government said at the time, “reflects the recognition of the overwhelming size, economic strength and expanding political influence of the People’s Republic of China internationally.”
For Taiwan, the loss was demoralizing. Officials worried that other countries might follow suit.
For years, Taiwan has helped Caribbean and Central American nations develop their economies through investments. These efforts have included organizing fishing and agriculture projects.
Taiwan fears a promising market for trade and future investment, a market it has nurtured, may be lost to Beijing.
“China wants to strangle us,” the Taiwanese diplomat said. “Since we have lost the battle in Europe and Asia, we have to try to earn space in the international community. We’ve already lost the big countries,” including the U.S., Great Britain and France. “We’re trying to hold on to the small ones.”
Toward that end, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Chang Hsiao-yen, toured the region to shore up support for Taiwan after China regained control of Hong Kong last month–and he came bearing gifts.
During his visit, Chang said Taiwan would consider hiring Central Americans to replace its estimated 240,000 “guest workers.”
To complement its workforce, Taiwan imports labor from some countries that recognize Beijing, including Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.
He also said Taiwan would be willing to contribute $100 million to a regional economic development fund.
China, meanwhile, kept an eye on Chang’s visit.
Last month, after the countries of Central America said they supported a plan to readmit Taiwan into the United Nations, China warned them in a letter that “they would pay the price.”
On Thursday, Costa Rica reiterated its decision to support Taiwan’s bid for UN membership.
Asked what China meant by the threat, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Mexico City, Wang Weihua, said China could use its veto power in the UN to hurt Taiwan’s supporters “politically.”
China would do that, he said, because readmission of Taiwan into the UN “is not legal and it is not possible.”
China already has used its clout on the Security Council to punish Guatemala. At the end of last year, when peace accords were signed after 36 years of civil war in Guatemala, China withheld the sending of a military mission to the Central American nation for a month because of its support of Taiwan.
In announcing its change in policy, the Bahamas also said it was well aware of China’s power in the UN.
According to American officials, these diplomatic skirmishes have existed since Taiwan was forced out of the UN in 1972, after the visit to China by then President Richard Nixon.
The rivalry took on an added dimension recently because of an upcoming international gathering next month in Panama. Sponsored by the Panamanian government to show the world it is prepared to operate the Panama Canal after the U.S. hands it over at the end of 1999, the event has turned into a diplomatic disaster.
The problem: An invitation was sent to Taiwan.
An event that was expected to draw 1,500 world leaders, diplomats and business people has shrunk to 300 because China is boycotting the four-day conference. The White House said President Clinton would be on vacation.
In Panama, the opposition has seized on the blunder, insisting the government of President Ernesto Perez Balladares is not up to managing the canal.
“Panama should have known that the invitation of Taiwan would cause problems,” said former Vice President Ricardo Arias Calderon, ranking leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Party.
Central American and Caribbean leaders have agreed to a summit with Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui in El Salvador in September.
What backfired on China was the threat of punishment.
“We will not be pressured,” said Nils Castro, the Panamanian ambassador to Mexico. “They can do that in their country, but not in ours.”
“We don’t have anything against either,” he said. “But we don’t accept somebody telling us what our decisions should be.”
He characterized Panama’s ties with Taiwan as a “business relationship.”
“It’s not charity,” he said.
Still, money tends to do funny things, and Central America does booming trade with China and Hong Kong.
China has not been afraid to brandish Hong Kong, informing Taiwan supporters that they would have to close consulates in Hong Kong and renegotiate new terms. Local governments have made millions of dollars selling visas and passports to Hong Kong and China.
Wang, the Chinese spokesman, said China understood the relationship between Taiwan and the region. Indeed, regional governments consider Taiwan a model, a small nation that went from poor to rich and, in the process, achieved democracy.
Wang, however, said Beijing was seeing “flexibility” on the part of some of these countries in their relationships with China.
He said part of the reason was that leaders from Central America and the Caribbean no longer see China as a giant communist threat.
In the last 15 years, he said, China has seen political stability and economic growth, which appeal to investors.
“In this world, no single country can live in isolation without contact with the outside world,” Wang said. “We, ourselves, have demonstrated that.”
