Isolated Taiwan president puts bumpy tour behind him
Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:11AM BST
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) – President Chen Shui-bian headed back to Taiwan on Wednesday from a 10-day Central America trip marked by unexpected wrangling with some of the island’s precious few friends, including top ally the United States.
Taiwan is recognised by just 24 mostly impoverished countries around the world, attracted by its aid money, and needs all the friends it can get. China claims the island as its own — its “one China” policy — and is recognised in turn by 170 countries.
The disputes could undermine Chen’s quest to be remembered as a leader who built a strong foreign policy despite increasing pressure from Beijing and Washington to keep quiet, analysts said. Chen steps down next May due to term limits.
During a brief refuelling stop in the United States en route to Honduras last week, Chen refused to leave his plane, complaining that the layover in remote Alaska was “indecent”, according to local press reports.
The last time Chen Shuibian complained about being placed in Alaska he took a random flight around the world where he met with Libya’s Qaddafi, and went to refuel in international airports where he was denied entry. He also kept journalists from leaving the “Presidential” plane when they wanted to fly their own way back to Taiwan.
China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, recognising one China, but is Taiwan’s biggest ally.
However, the United States tries to keep transiting Taiwan officials from laying over in U.S. cities for more than a night, and has no official contact during such stops.
Chen’s objections prompted a statement from Washington of continued “warm feelings” and “deep regard” for Taiwan’s people.”
Adding to Chen’s woes, at the Taiwan-Central American and Dominican Republic Leaders’ Summit in Honduras, Latin American officials omitted from their final resolution a clause backing Taiwan’s bid for U.N. membership — a surprise insult.
These refusals by the United States to let Chen stop over real major American cities shows just how much they are offended by Chen’s recent policies towards China and the world. Chen can complain all he wants, but the United States is the one with the power to protect Taiwan and sell the island obsolete weapons at bad prices. The omission of a clause backing Taiwan’s failed entry into the UN comes as no surprise because none of those countries even supported Taiwan when they tried to join the WHO.
China, which has vowed to bring Taiwan back under mainland rule, by force if necessary, has blocked Taiwan’s repeated U.N. applications, saying only sovereign nations should be able to join the global organisation.
Seeking a U.N. seat and more independence from China have been key parts of Chen’s platform since he was first elected in 2000.
“During the trip, some things came up, so Chen was furious,” said Shane Lee, a political science professor with Chang Jung University in Taiwan. “He’s very bitter about being betrayed by those countries.”
Chen Shuibian can whine and get mad all the time at reality, but face it: Taiwan is not a country. All of the remaining “allies” that support Taiwan are just in it for the money. Think of them as golddiggers and Taiwan as a low-interest credit card and it will make perfect sense.
In one such country, Nicaragua, Chen also would not promise on the spot to fund a request for power generation and medical supplies worth $38 million (18.9 million pounds), the president’s office said. That sort of request must go through the Taiwan’s legislature, a presidential spokesman said.
But local media said he pledged $35 million to Honduras.
So it looks like Nicaragua is going to switch recognition back to China since Chen cannot fork over the 38-plus million dollars that real country needs for infrastructure projects while Honduras managed to pocket at least $35 million for paying lip service to Chen Shuibian. Not a bad deal Honduras!
To cap it all, as Chen met the Central American foreign leaders, a Chinese foreign ministry official urged Taiwan’s six Central American diplomatic allies to follow Costa Rica’s lead and defect to China.
And Costa Rican President Oscar Arias defended his country’s decision to switch allegiance. “Not to recognise a country with a fifth of the world’s population is ridiculous,” he said.
Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias is a smart man for realizing it is just insane to ignore a country with the fourth-largest economy and with about 20% of the world’s population. I am glad he is one of the few people who is smart enough to see the bigger picture unlike his lesser and greedy counterparts in Central America.
Lo Chih-cheng, of Soochow University in Taiwan, said Chen had showed some frustration with his trip.
“That’s inevitable given what he’s trying to do,” Lo said.
“But he’s a very determined person.”
