Bruce Jacobs had a nice commentary in the Taipei Times today arguing that Taipei really ought to pursue some kind of "dual recognition" format:Second, Taiwan needs to broadcast much more clearly that it is willing to have joint recognition with China. At least from the outside, it appears that Taiwan still breaks relations with countries that recognize China. Foreign Ministry people explain this is for Taiwan's "national pride," but in essence the explanations sound similar to those used by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) all those years ago.
Dual recognition has already occurred once before. In 2003, when Kiribati switched from the PRC to Taiwan, China continued to keep its people there since it maintained a listening post and satellite monitoring facilities there, established in 1997. It stayed for three weeks, from November 7, when ties were cut, to November 29.
It can be done, if both governments are willing to be sensible.
Resource: Excellent background article on the Great Pacific War for recognition between Taiwan and China.
[Taiwan]
3 comments:
Nauru is another case. From Wikipedia:
Nauru has used its position as a member of the UN to gain financial support from both Taiwan and the People's Republic of China by changing its position on the political status of Taiwan. During 2002, Nauru signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China on 21 July. This move followed China's promise to provide more than US$60 million in aid. In response, Taiwan severed diplomatic relations with Nauru two days later. Nauru later re-established links with Taiwan on 14 May 2005,[24] and diplomatic ties with China were officially severed on 31 May 2005; however, the PRC continues to maintain a diplomatic presence in the island nation.
interesting. So it is being done now.
It's certainly in Taiwan's best interest to go for dual recognition over a all or none mentality.
I never understood why Taiwan would decide to sever relations with a country if and when they switched recognition to PRC. Continuing relations would further show that Taiwan and PRC are separate entities. Instead, Taiwan should only have to sever relations if the other country was forced by China to pick one or the other, if not, Taiwan should not go ahead and sever relationships on its own.
Am I the only one that thinks this? This seems a lot more reasonable and favorable to Taiwan in a lot of ways.
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