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Taiwanese Oppose Buying Diplomatic Relations
Taiwan's new leader who is still traveling through the Caribbean, Central America and Africa, has already broken the promise he made before the trip not to engage in "money diplomacy" and been buying diplomatic recognition throughout his trip. The people of Taiwan have expressed their dissatisfaction over this type of foreign diplomacy.
According to the Taiwan media, Taiwan's new leader has promised more than US$250 million to various projects in the Caribbean, Central America and Africa. The Democratic Progressive Party, which opposed the KMT practice of buying diplomatic recognition before the "presidential" election, has changed course and announced that it is necessary.
This has sparked off a wave of discontent among the common people in Taiwan, who accuse the new leader of saying one thing and doing another. Taiwan's Minsheng Pao polled twelve people from Tainan, Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Miaoli and ten of them opposed this "money diplomacy."
They pointed out that Taiwan's economy currently isn't doing too well, several major projects have been halted, the earthquake relief has been proceeding slowly due to insufficient funds and the stock market has been falling as reasons why the authorities should not use tax money to fund this kind of diplomacy.
Those polled felt that using money to buy "friendly relations" won't last long. Moreover, these friendly countries are all weak or small countries, which are not very useful. Chen Meijin, a civil servant from Taichung, and Chen Yuqi, a businessman from Kaohsiung, both feel that this sort of "money diplomacy" won't give Taiwan any visible benefits. The Taiwan authorities should crack down on "black gold," increase social benefits and improve public safety.
The Taiwan media has quoted experts as saying that the goal of buying of smaller and weaker countries is to try to buy its admission into the United Nations, promoting the "two Chinas" principle and an "independent Taiwan." The experts say that when Lee Teng-hui was "president", he spent a large sum of tax money to buy "foreign relations" but the countries he gave financial assistance to grew smaller and smaller. He tried seven consecutive times to buy Taiwan's admittance into the United Nations buy providing "financial assistance" to small and weak countries and failed. Taiwan's new leader is going down the same path without much result.
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