Islands Business - Politics/ Taiwan: CO-OPERATION, AID CONTINUE UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP

Taiwan’s policies for the Pacific

Dev Nadkarni
When the Kuomintang Party (KMT) won Taiwanese elections defeating the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) earlier this year, there was anticipation around the region on how the regime change would affect Taiwan’s policies in the Pacific.

Victor Te-sun Yu... director-general of Asia Pacific Affairs. Pic: Dev Nadkarni

China has always considered Taiwan a renegade province of its own even though its government has never had control over the tiny western Pacific island at any time. Taiwan has run its own affairs all along, turning into a democracy and an economic powerhouse in the past two decades.

China, however, has largely succeeded in thwarting its attempts to gain international recognition as a sovereign state.

Over the years the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of China (as Taiwan calls itself) have competed fiercely to win the support of Pacific islands states—as also several around the world—often with large dollops of aid and a range of other mostly pecuniary inducements.

New Zealand, Australia and more recently the United States have criticised this policy as ‘chequebook diplomacy’.

Taiwan and China share a common cultural heritage and despite their troubled political relationship, especially in the past eight years, have a growing business engagement.

Taiwanese businesses have over US$100 billion worth of investments in China making it the largest single investor there and over one million Taiwanese professionals and workers live and work on the mainland. Also, Taiwan has turned out to be the biggest single aid donor in the wake of the tragic Sichuan earthquake in China.

These growing business and cultural ties were overshadowed by the previous DPP regime’s frequent rhetoric about declaring Taiwan an independent state much to the ire of mainland China.

The Chinese leadership regarded its leader and former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian with increasing suspicion and had put in place a law that authorised the Chinese administration to invade the island if it declared independence.

It also arrayed hundreds of missiles on its coastal provinces for a possible attack if the need arose. (Incidentally, Chen along with some of his family members and associates are currently under investigation on a range of corruption charges).

In contrast, new President Ma Ying-jeou, in his inaugural address to the nation soon after he took oath as Taiwan’s 12th president on May 20 said he had put improving relations with China at the top of his government’s agenda.

At a news conference after he took office, he said this was pivotal because so many issues that had a bearing on Taiwan’s international relationships, trade, commerce and even certain development issues, depended on it.
He also spelt out some pre-conditions. “During my term as president,” he said, “I will not engage with China on issues of reunification, independence and the use of force.”

The KMT is expected to follow the line of least resistance by maintaining the status quo while working on bettering cultural and economic relations with China over the coming years.

The two sides have already had their first high level meetings and by all counts, they will likely work closer together on a range of matters that concern their relationship with each other as well as with other countries of the world.

Soon after KMT won the March election, some of its senior elected members were quoted in the media as saying that the new regime would work towards rationalising the way Taiwan and China have handled their aid and assistance packages in the Pacific and elsewhere.

A couple of them have even aired their views saying that now there would be opportunities to work alongside China and bring about a measure of practicality in the aid process, replacing economic assistance with more meaningful development assistance.

ISLANDS BUSINESS.COM Editor Dev Nadkarni, who was in Taipei at the inauguration of President Ma, spoke with Victor Te-sun Yu, the Taiwan government’s newly appointed Director-General of Asia Pacific Affairs on the eve of the presidential inauguration on the likely direction Taiwan’s policies would take in the Pacific region and also about other recent developments and issues affecting Taiwan in the region—including the PNG aid scandal reported by ISLANDS BUSINESS in its June edition.

What changes can we hope to see in Taiwan’s Pacific policy?

“It is difficult to get into the specifics at this stage because this is a new government. But basically, we have a set policy foreign policy of continuity and consistency. In the coming years as in the past cooperation will remain same and actually get strengthened. But as I said, at this stage it is difficult to give the details.”

Soon after the KMT’s election victory, some leaders were quoted in the media as saying that now there was scope for Taiwan to rationalise the aid process. Does this mean that in the years before this was more on a ad hoc basis?

“I think they were quoted out of context. Our cooperation with Pacific allies has always been project oriented. It has made a positive impact in the Pacific. Every country has difficulty in making sure aid is accountable, it is a common problem. We do our best to deal with it and sometimes things go out of our control. But Taiwan’s intentions have basically been to help the people of its allies directly in the fields of public health, medical projects, aquaculture, ICT, solar panels, farming projects. People must benefit from these projects.”

Then why has there been so much criticism all along of so-called chequebook diplomacy, the race to buy influence?

“Due to Taiwan’s special status a lot of people believe that we try to buy influence by throwing money at countries. This is simply not true. Our assistance is always project-related.”

What project were funds in Papua New Guinea meant for? The funds that went missing and caused a political storm in Port Moresby?

“The PNG case has damaged our reputation and the media blew it out of proportion. I am not guaranteeing that all are above board but our own departments have a clear conscience.”

So what were the funds meant for?

“All funds were meant as guarantee, not directed to any individual or with any other motive except other than development aid cooperation. We have officials to guarantee to support cooperation efforts. Our duty is providing assistance and cooperation there is nothing wrong in it. We were completely taken by surprise that some of the money was going to individual politicians’ pockets. We could not believe it. This has really damaged our reputation.”

Why has it damaged Taiwan’s reputation?

“Because most people will think that officials of ROC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs are so easy to swindle. But as I said, we have a clear conscience and we were surprised that some of the funds went into some people’s pockets. We will take action.”

What action is your government taking?

“The case is under investigation and I cannot comment now. Our conscience is clear. Something went wrong with Mr Chin. He betrayed our trust and we will track him down...we will exhaust all means we have. It’s just an unfortunate case—there was no secret dealing.”