Islands in the Beijing-Taipei
storm By Ian Williams
NEW YORK - This week the newly elected
United Workers Party (UWP) government in St Lucia
finally put truth to the rumors that have been
spreading since it took office. It has reopened
diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China has
been blustering for several weeks in anticipation
of the event, which was heralded by several
high-level visits from Taipei. St Lucia had
switched from Taiwan to China in 1997 when St
Lucian
Labour Party leader Anthony Kenny won the
election.
The Caribbean is rich in music,
rums, beaches - and United Nations envoys. Most of
the small islands are sovereign members of the UN,
and each has the same vote as mighty China in the
General Assembly. Indeed, each of them also has
one more vote than medium-sized Taiwan, which has
led to a war of attrition over several decades
between Beijing and Taipei, with each wooing the
governments of the small states for recognition.
In fact, 12 of the 25 states recognizing Taiwan
are Central American or Caribbean.
The
Caribbean states have few assets, and their
sovereignty is one of them, which is why their
votes are courted on such issues as the whaling
ban - and China. Many of them also are prickly on
their independence and have maintained strong
stands on such issues as the International
Criminal Court and relations with Cuba, despite
heavy pressure from the United States. They can be
bought, but they do not like bullying, which is
why Beijing's blustering can be counterproductive.
The competition benefits the Caribbean as
a whole, since the chosen weapon of the two
contending parties is aid: roads, conference
centers, sports stadiums and gymnasiums. In the
case of St Lucia, the People's Republic of China's
current projects include a psychiatric hospital
and schools. The massive International World
Cricket Cup that climaxed with an Australian
victory in Barbados last Saturday was played on
several of the islands, in stadiums paid for with
the fruits of competitive aid.
But St
Lucian External Affairs Minister Rufus Bousquet
complained after a recent visit by his Taiwanese
counterpart James Huang that "the Chinese have
essentially given us very large and expensive
buildings which are rather difficult to maintain.
Thus far St Lucian citizens have asked themselves
questions as to both the usability and viability
of the stadium built by the Chinese. We as a
government are grateful for the fact that the
Chinese have shown a willingness to assist, but I
think in terms of assisting, the general concept
with which the UWP operates [is] one of
sustainable development, an area in which the
Taiwanese are very proficient."
Sometimes
there are echoes of the Cold War, in that the
parties that were resolutely anti-communist such
as the UWP of Sir John Compton, elected prime
minister of St Lucia in December, recognized
Taiwan while the more leftist, Third Worldist
governments went with Beijing. But with the
blurring of ideology from China, those influences
are usually less crucial. For example, Kenny's
close political friend Prime Minister Ralph
Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines
maintained the Taiwan connection when he took
office in 2001, despite a youthful fling with
Maoism. Taiwan is rebuilding the airport,
essential to expanding tourism.
The island
nation of Dominica was facing bankruptcy and then
was faced with an offer from Beijing that it could
not refuse - more than US$100 million over six
years. It switched from Taipei to Beijing in 2004.
One of the few that have had to pay a
price has been Haiti, where China, despite having
personnel in the UN mission there, has often
threatened to veto its continuation in protest at
the continuing recognition of Taiwan by successive
administrations in Port-au-Prince. It has so far
bowed to diplomatic pressure from Latin American
and Caribbean states not to do so.
The new
pro-independence government in Taiwan stopped the
former policy of insisting that states recognize
it as the sole government of all of China (indeed,
the Kuomintang had insisted on including Mongolia
as well) and, as now with St Lucia, encouraged
countries to maintain relations with Beijing. Of
course Beijing actually wants Taipei to claim the
whole of China, rather than restrict its claims to
the territory it actually claims.
It is
highly unlikely that China will continue relations
with St Lucia past the few weeks or months it
takes before it abandons its hopes of persuading
the UWP government to reverse its stand yet again.
On many issues, the Caribbean nations like
to take a united stand. It is unlikely that they
would on recognition of either Beijing or Taiwan.
Whichever they recognize, it is to the advantage
of all of them to be able to play off one against
the other, so an occasional churning of envoys
reminds both Taipei and Beijing that they should
not take loyalties for granted.
Ian
Williams is author of Deserter: Bush's War
on Military Families, Veterans and His Past,
Nation Books, New York.
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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