2005-11-15 23:46:14小魚
What Taiwan should not do when we are losing friends
It was reported by the media that the Vatican is ready to move its nuncio (ambassador) from Taipei to Beijing anytime when it establishes diplomatic relations with mainland China after breaks tie with Taiwan. The precondition made by the Church is that China has to respect religious freedom. On the other hand, Beijing insists on the end of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the Vatican, as long as the withdrawal of the Church from China’s internal affairs.
After the recent loss of Senegal as one of our few allies in the world, we have to pay attention to this coverage in particular not only because the Vatican is one of our twenty-five allies left, our only friend in Europe, but also because it is the spiritual center of the Catholics all over the world. Once we lose it, we may also lose the nine other allies in Latin America which are religiously close to the Church.
It is therefore reasonable to believe that China also understands the tremendous influence of the Church. It is exactly why, under the fundamental principle of not allowing any foreign power meddling in its inner affairs, China is willing to gradually accept the Vatican’s legitimacy of bishop appointment (or tacitly addressed as “approval”) even though the Vatican is geographically and economically a tiny country.
After the recent loss of Senegal as one of our few allies in the world, we have to pay attention to this coverage in particular not only because the Vatican is one of our twenty-five allies left, our only friend in Europe, but also because it is the spiritual center of the Catholics all over the world. Once we lose it, we may also lose the nine other allies in Latin America which are religiously close to the Church.
It is therefore reasonable to believe that China also understands the tremendous influence of the Church. It is exactly why, under the fundamental principle of not allowing any foreign power meddling in its inner affairs, China is willing to gradually accept the Vatican’s legitimacy of bishop appointment (or tacitly addressed as “approval”) even though the Vatican is geographically and economically a tiny country.
In such harsh diplomatic circumstances in which we can only accept others’ decisions when they are to leave us, frankly speaking, there is not much we can do. But there is certainly something we should not do to protect ourselves and to keep things from getting worse.
First, we should not trust everyone and every word. The lesson we learn from Senegal is that “between countries, there are no friends, only interests.” In the case of Senegal, even when our diplomatic officials had sensed something wrong, we were naive enough to believe the story of the Senegal government that the economic relations between Senegal and China would not damage what between Taiwan and Senegal. Finally, it turned out that we were cheated.
Therefore, we can never be too cautious from now on. Our intelligence system has to work harder to gather more information and every piece of information is worth a second thought.
We should not try to continue competing spending money with China, either. Taiwan was used to make friends by providing economic benefits. However, as China is becoming one of the biggest economies in the world, we learned that giving money is no longer a good diplomatic solution since China can afford more money now. Take Senegal for example. China has offered nearly six hundred million US dollars for building relations with it.
On the contrary, we should look for our “niche market”—something that only we are good at and China cannot compete with. For instance, we can cooperate with our allies to develop the biotechnology industry.
First, we should not trust everyone and every word. The lesson we learn from Senegal is that “between countries, there are no friends, only interests.” In the case of Senegal, even when our diplomatic officials had sensed something wrong, we were naive enough to believe the story of the Senegal government that the economic relations between Senegal and China would not damage what between Taiwan and Senegal. Finally, it turned out that we were cheated.
Therefore, we can never be too cautious from now on. Our intelligence system has to work harder to gather more information and every piece of information is worth a second thought.
We should not try to continue competing spending money with China, either. Taiwan was used to make friends by providing economic benefits. However, as China is becoming one of the biggest economies in the world, we learned that giving money is no longer a good diplomatic solution since China can afford more money now. Take Senegal for example. China has offered nearly six hundred million US dollars for building relations with it.
On the contrary, we should look for our “niche market”—something that only we are good at and China cannot compete with. For instance, we can cooperate with our allies to develop the biotechnology industry.
Last but not least, we should not consider the case of Senegal or the Vatican as one single case. Instead, they indicate that our diplomatic situation has been worsened. We have to be especially careful about the domino effect as Senegal’s economy is considered to be reasonably strong compared with other Western African countries and as what has been mentioned above, the Vatican is the spiritual leader of the Catholic countries in the world.
To sum up, the crucial reality does not allow us to follow suit in diplomacy. We have to be much more alert, flexible and creative about what we should do and what we should not in order to survive.
To sum up, the crucial reality does not allow us to follow suit in diplomacy. We have to be much more alert, flexible and creative about what we should do and what we should not in order to survive.