One thing must be made very clear.Taiwan certainly is engaged in what a U.S. State Department official described as “checkbook diplomacy.”The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is compelled to do so by orders of President Chen Shi-bian and all his predecessors.Taiwan needs to keep diplomatic ties with as many countries as possible to look like an independent, sovereign state, according to these presidents.Taipei has to take on Beijing in the one-upmanship game of winning more diplomatic recognition.
On the other hand, the Waichiaopu had to refute Uncle Sam’s charges of checkbook diplomacy against Taipei.No one in the foreign service can officially admit Taipei is wasting money on its diplomatic allies, who may switch recognition to Beijing before you can say Jack Robinson, if the latter’s offer of cash aid is right.That’s why David Wang, the MOFA spokesman, had to deny what a Foggy Bottom deputy assistant secretary said in testimony at the House subcommittee last week.
Glyn Davies told Congressmen both Taiwan and China are trying to outdo each other by throwing huge sums of money at the Pacific leaders and the United States remains uneasy about the competition for recognition in the South Pacific.“To the extent that (China) and Taiwan engage in ‘checkbook diplomacy’ to gain favor with Pacific leaders,” he was quoted as saying, “the political process in those countries will be distorted.”As a democracy, Taiwan is transparent in all of its offers of foreign aid to its allies, Wang responded.He denied any “inappropriateness” in Taiwan’s financial assistance to the Pacific islands, none of which do any better than Singapore Chen Tang Sun called a mini-state the size of one’s nose dirt, while he was foreign minister.
David Wang, however, shouldn’t have gone on the record by saying Taiwan “will never engage in diplomatic affairs that compromise Taiwan’s democracy.”The reason is simple.Taiwan has done so, and will do so, unless the president calls it quits and gives up the money-losing game.President Chen has just gone to Managua to promise to give cash assistance to his Nicaraguan opposite number Daniel Ortega, who had vowed to cut off diplomatic ties with Taipei in the run-up to his election.Nobody can be sure some of the money promised won’t line someone’s pockets.We do not forget quite a handful of Latin American presidents have been indicted for taking bribes from Taipei.
But it’s unfair for Davies to claim Taipei’s checkbook diplomacy is distorting the democratic process in the Pacific island nations.Uncle Sam himself extended aid in gratis and financial assistance in other forms to keep or win over diplomatic allies against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Didn’t Washington aid Saddam Hussein in warring on Iran?What’s the Contra scandal all about?Of course, that assistance was not called checkbook diplomacy, albeit no one can see where it differed fundamentally from what Taipei and Beijing are said to engage in.
Besides, the diplomatic war between Taiwan and China little affects the political process of the island nations in the South Pacific.Washington wants all of them to be free and democratic.Democracy evolves.It cannot be bought.Nor can it be handed over on a silver plate just as the United States has been trying to do to post-Hussein Iraq.
（本文刊載於96.03.19 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）
王順民
(
12月6日 16:38
)
徐明珠
(
2007年8月3日 15:19
)
