‘The Taiwan card’: island’s growing strategic value is testing Beijing’s diplomacy tactics
- Taiwan is increasingly an international issue and the election outcome may reshape its future ties with the world
- As Beijing seeks to influence other countries’ ties with the island, it has the means to ‘make them pay for their decisions’, expert says
Many countries in Asia, Europe and beyond have stepped up their rhetoric, voicing concerns on the worsening situation in the Taiwan Strait. Over recent months, some have followed Washington’s lead to circumvent Beijing’s opposition and pursue substantive economic and political ties with the island’s independence-leaning government.
While most countries, including the United States, have been sensitive to China’s red lines over the one-China policy, and have largely refrained from seeking official relations with the island, pundits say Beijing faces a bigger challenge – the island’s fate has increasingly become an international issue.
The election on Saturday has attracted global attention and its outcome may tilt the fragile balance between mainland China, Taiwan and the US. And according to all three, the results may also affect the island’s future ties with the rest of the world.
“There has been a clear trend that the Taiwan issue has become more internationalised,” said Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of international relations and director of the China Institute at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Taiwan has done a great public relations job in selling its democracy vis-à-vis an authoritarian China
Beijing has often touted its success in persuading nine countries to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan – most recently Honduras in March last year – since the island’s outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen, took power in 2016. Thanks to Beijing’s pressure tactics and chequebook diplomacy, the number of countries that have formal ties with the island has dropped from 51 in 1971, when the United Nations recognised Beijing and expelled Taipei, to 13 at present.