This year, more than any other, the region’s national day ceremonies included the phrase” political Taiwan.”
In her final national time speech before resigning as the first democratically elected female president, President Tsai Ing-wen stated last week that she had” brought the global spotlight to Democrat Taiwan.”
She continued,” Taiwanese people will continue to be democratic and free for future years.” It served as both a declaration of the region’s identity and an appeal to the world to pay attention and prevent the extinction of this lively and open community.
You Si – Kun, the head of Taiwan’s government, had lauded these same qualities in his opening remarks, saying that Taiwan is the top democracy in Asia and the tenth in the world.
It is impossible to overstate the significance of these thoughts to Taiwan, which feels extremely threatened by Chinese statements to its place.
Political Taiwan has established itself as its product and pitch to the world about the importance of this 23 million-person self-governing island and the need to protect it from Chinese encroachment. Taiwan has very few official allies despite being a superpower with an$ 800 billion chip.
At one point, Taipei had a military pact with the US and was seated on the UN security council. It was run as an anti-Communist tyranny and had the backing of governments with similar ideologies in Seoul, Santo Domingo, Pretoria, and Panama City.
Those companions from the Cold War era are now all but gone. More than ever, Taiwan faces a danger, and Taipei is in desperate need of new friends.
At the meeting on Tuesday, that obstacle was clearly on display.
Simply put, it’s never standard.
The master of ceremonies said,” Please extend a warm welcome to today’s festivities to our honored VIP visitors.” The leader of Nauru, a Pacific micro-state with only 10, 800 residents, then arrived along the dark floor. The governor general of St. Kitts and Nevis, a 47, 000-person Tropical state, was the next, followed by St Vincent and the Grenadines, another relative giant by Tropical micro-state standards, with an 110,000-person population.
Ambassadors from Guatemala, Paraguay, Haiti, and Eswatini occupied the back row of political seats.
The first two are still precarious governments that are fighting unrest and fraud, and this year only in Haiti, group murder has claimed thousands of lives. Eswatini is Taiwan’s last remaining Egyptian friend and the only remaining absolute monarchy in Africa. In order to meet King Mswati III and commemorate the 55th anniversary of the small kingdom’s independence, President Tsai flew all the way there next month.
These are among Taiwan’s 13 formal political allies, which are the last of its Cold War-era relationships.
When he retreated to Taiwan from China in 1949, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s regime Taipei, Taiwan held on to big allies like the US and Japan all the way through the 1950s and 60s, when Mao Zedong’s Communist China was cut off from the world.
However, President Richard Nixon later sat down with Mao Zedong in Beijing in February 1972. The start of Communist China’s global beginning was a significant time. It caused Beijing to receive a wave of political reputation. One of the first to move was Tokyo. Then came Washington in 1979.
Chiang Kai-Shek died Taipei, Taiwan in 1975, his dreams of retaking the Chinese mainland unfulfilled. But he’d handed power to his son and the island remained a one-party dictatorship that tortured and imprisoned its opponents.
For the majority of nations, the justification for maintaining connections was lost. Those who did, including the commanders of South Korea, racism South Africa, and right-wing dictatorships in Central America, were generally likewise evil systems.
Taipei increasingly relied on its checkbook for support and funding from its dwindling record of allies.
However, nowadays China’s checkbook is larger than Taiwanese, and its economy is significantly more significant. The remaining supporters are insignificant and of little assistance in defending Taiwan from a resolute China.
Naturally, this does not imply that there aren’t any.
The fact that two visiting marching bands received the most applause at Tuesday’s federal day events may not come as a surprise. Japan and the US, which are still the two nations Taiwan cares about and needs the most, are represented by the first and second, respectively, from Tokyo and Los Angeles.
Even after switching recognition, Washington continued to quietly support Taiwan, selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to the island. Its unofficial embassy Taipei, Taiwan is a vast compound euphemistically called “The American Institute in Taiwan”.
Walk down any back street Taipei, Taiwan and you can’t help but notice the astonishing number of Japanese restaurants, filled with Japanese businessmen. Japan’s westernmost island – Yonaguni – is just 110km (68 miles) from Taiwan’s east coast. Tokyo cares deeply what happens to Taiwan. During a recent speech Taipei, Taiwan former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso called on the international community to “wake up” to the threat from China.
These connections are still” unofficial”; even at the festival, they were cast into the background, much like their friends.
How to meet new people
Taiwan is looking to make new friends in order to deal with China and to gain help from influential international organizations, particularly the European Union, as a result of China’s ongoing military training and exclusion from important partnerships.
Proof of one new friendship is easily visible Taipei, Taiwan’s supermarkets, which now sell something that is quite uncommon in Asia: Lithuanian-made India Pale Ale. Imports of the brew, along with Lithuanian rum and chocolate, have soared in Taiwan in the last few years, and Taipei has even announced a $10m investment in Lithuania in the most prized Taiwanese product – chips.
Lithuania: Why? The younger governments of Eastern Europe, which were once under Moscow’s rule but are now a part of Nato and the EU, are perhaps the best places to make new friends.
The head of Taiwan’s congress warned against authoritarian systems” rolling back flexibility, from Ukraine to Hong Kong, Myanmar to Afghanistan” during his speech to the national time audiences.
Some nations, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia, and Lithuania, are concerned about a resurgent Russia and may even share the same sentiments as the vast authoritarian state that insists it shouldn’t arise.
Lithuania permitted Taipei to establish a location in Vilnius in 2021 under the name” Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.”
Beijing was in a state of hysteria and sent Lithuania’s embassy back to Beijing. More deterrence has come after. However, the Vilnius federal has resisted giving in. It has gone even further, calling its ties to Taipei a” proper goal.”
According to the statement,” Lithuania is attempting to improve sensible cooperation with Taiwan, a like-minded politics, and an important economic and technological companion in the region.”
Although the IPA may seem insignificant on Japanese supermarket shelves, it is a sign of the country’s future.
It is not trying to get rid of its former friends. On national time 2024, Nauru’s president will still be welcomed.
However, if Taiwan had a Tinder page, it might read:” Young politics, with open culture and thriving high-tech market, looking to make new strong connections with like-minded partners.” Next-door neighbor, there’s a trouble!