I.Foreword – Stabilize and strike back amid the turmoil
Looking back on Taiwan’s diplomatic situation over the past year, China has continued to unreasonably bully Taiwan through all possible diplomatic means. This includes coercing Taiwan’s allies with monetary incentives to sever ties, blocking Taiwan’s every attempt at involvement in international affairs and forcing Taiwan to submit to China’s will. Hence, 2006 was a year full of turmoil and obstacles for Taiwan’s diplomatic personnel. However, it was also a year filled with challenges and opportunities. In the face of China’s aggressive diplomatic moves, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) will not just sit back and watch. MOFA remains determined to fend off China by holding the existing diplomatic lines and striking back through expanding into new territory.
During the last Legislative session, MOFA upheld the will of the Taiwanese people to safeguard Taiwan’s national interests, dignity and independent sovereignty. MOFA has consistently increased communications with lawmakers to garner support for its diplomatic efforts. Abroad, in the face of threats from China, MOFA has worked hard to stop China undermining Taiwan by setting up a mechanism through which allies can give us advance warnings. In the meantime, Taiwan is also striking back through the use of soft power. We are actively seeking substantive partnerships with friendly nations that share with Taiwan the world’s core values and seizing all opportunities to take part in international affairs. Overall, Taiwan’s diplomatic work has advanced steadily amid the turmoil.
II. Gear up for diplomatic challenges
Globalization together with the rise and strategic expansion of China are the two main challenges Taiwan must face in its relations with other countries. Taiwan is currently feeling the impact of democratization at home and globalization abroad. The question of how to safeguard the interests and dignity of the nation in a swiftly changing world and under China’s oppression has posed a significant challenge for MOFA. To rise to this challenge, MOFA will use combative diplomacy, promote foreign affairs reform and establish comprehensive cooperative partnerships in the era of the global village.
1.Use combative diplomacy to confront a hegemonic China
China has risen on the tide of globalization. Were it not for globalization, capital would stop flowing, the transfer of technology and human resources would cease and the rise of China would never have occurred. Alas, the real picture is one of a China, with its competitive national strengths, playing a pivotal role in world affairs. China is a key player in the world’s power structure, which affords it much room for diplomatic maneuvering. As a direct result and in stark contrast, Taiwan’s international elbow room has been further squeezed.
China is currently waging a war on three fronts - legal, media and psychological - in its attempts to limit Taiwan’s international breathing space. The implementation of its “three all policy” aims to take all of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, block all channels for Taiwan internationally and crush all Taiwan’s international room for maneuver. China has used all possible means to downgrade, marginalize and localize Taiwan, as well as deny the existence of Taiwan’s government and sovereignty. China also abuses its authority as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to restrict Taiwan’s peace-keeping activities to its allies. Moreover, China uses monetary incentives to coerce Taiwan’s allies into severing ties.
China continues to block Taiwan in its attempts to join international organizations, including NGOs, and seal off Taiwan’s basic right to interact with other nations. China’s scheming against Taiwan can be seen everywhere at any given moment, which is a clear indication of just how hand-to-hand and cut-throat the war of diplomacy between Taiwan and China has become.
The diplomatic tug-of-war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is taking place throughout the world. If Taiwan is to win the “asymmetric warfare” characterized by China’s brutal oppression, MOFA should be positioned as a combative, rather than administrative, unit that strategically integrates and reallocates limited material and human resources in support of administrative units. This will enable Taiwan to use its limited resources to maximum diplomatic effect and win the battle.
Moreover, China has accelerated its military expansion in recent years and continues to deploy evermore missiles targeting Taiwan. In January, 2007, China launched an anti-satellite missile test without prior warning, sparking concern throughout the international community, especially neighboring countries. China’s missile test undermines stability and security in the East Asia region, and has seriously affected progress on normalizing cross-strait relations. Taiwan is calling on the international community through bilateral, regional and multilateral channels to pressure China into making its military build-up transparent.
2.Carry out foreign affairs reform to cope with the challenges of globalization
The rapid globalization of the 21st century has brought a number of new and huge challenges to countries around the world. Many countries, including Taiwan, rate foreign affairs as a top challenge requiring urgent attention. Taiwan must quickly transform those institutions that deal with the outside world to be able to promptly react to a rapidly changing external environment and to maximize the nation’s overall diplomatic effectiveness.
In the era of the global village, international affairs are becoming more diversified, which complicates diplomatic work and requires input from professionals from other fields. To ensure the success of diplomatic work in this new era, vertical and horizontal resources must be aligned domestically, and the strengths of different departments and agencies from central and local government must be integrated into a unified whole. Under the instruction of the Cabinet-level foreign affairs task force, MOFA is mapping out a future development plan, including training for personnel who are to be dispatched to foreign countries.
Further, a lack of a unified and centralized command authority has made coordinating work between relevant agencies even more difficult. The ministry has already submitted a proposal for approval from the Executive Yuan on “Operational Guidelines for Coordination Meetings on Unifying Command of Overseas Diplomatic Institutions”. These regular interagency meetings between heads of other ministries, with the foreign minister as convener, can help Taiwan coordinate its foreign affairs and unify the opinions of different ministries. This will serve as an important mechanism for interagency communication.
Taiwan’s diplomats should be equipped with practical expertise and knowledge in a wide range of fields and regions, and should be able to speak at least two foreign languages. In the future, our goal is to train our diplomatic and consular officials to have more than just a keen knowledge of, and skills in, traditional aspects of international and diplomatic affairs. Indeed, training will also cover such areas as negotiation skills, environmental protection, high technology, agriculture, medical healthcare, national defense and cross-strait affairs. We will achieve this through short and medium-length training programs held by the relevant departments.
We also encourage all diplomatic staff, irrespective of whether they hail from MOFA or other authorities, to attend training programs in diplomatic, consular and administrative affairs, as well as negotiation skills, before being dispatched overseas. We hope that their increased knowledge and skills in these areas will transform them into flexible and professional members of a thoroughly integrated combat team. Everyone in this team will be armed with the ability to cope with the challenges of different scenarios; this versatility will allow central command and our overseas commanders to flexibly deploy their personnel and to maintain a high level of combat effectiveness.
In view of the fact that broad experience is of vital importance to nurturing outstanding diplomats, personnel from this ministry dispatched overseas are required to serve in both allied and non-allied countries in different regions. We also now require that new recruits be capable of speaking two foreign languages. We believe that through our continuous efforts to reform, Taiwan’s diplomats will impress people everywhere.
3. Establish comprehensive cooperative partnerships with a new diplomatic mindset
The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a prospering country with advanced technology and booming trade. To Taiwan, globalization should be more about opportunity than challenge. In this new era, we hope to establish comprehensive cooperative partnerships with all members of the global village in such areas as technology, environmental protection, democracy, human rights, security, culture, agriculture and fisheries.
This is not to say that we intend to wage a vicious diplomatic war with China on this front. On the contrary, China was far from our thoughts when formulating this strategy. The question, rather, is how to align ourselves with the inevitable trend of globalization. We must emphasize that Taiwan has limited national resources and cannot build comprehensive partnerships with all countries in all aspects. Hence, we must first analyze the unique characteristics of individual countries to seek out the best routes into partnerships. These routes will allow Taiwan to enter into more constructive and substantive cooperation with other countries. For example, Taiwan can partner with countries in the South Pacific through developing fisheries and protecting the environment. We can build cooperative partnerships with countries in the Middle East around the energy, technology and petrochemical industries. Taiwan’s successful development experience can also be the basis for better partnerships in Africa. Taiwan can develop new cooperative partnerships with just about every country in this global village according to each country’s unique characteristics.
III. General Direction of Our Diplomatic Endeavors
In response to the ever-changing international community and China’s continuous diplomatic blockade, Taiwan upholds the ideals of democracy, human rights, co-prosperity, peace and security to consolidate diplomatic ties and develop comprehensive global partnerships. Based on our faith in democracy, Taiwan hopes to establish a value alliance to promote humanitarian diplomacy and co-prosperity. The directions of our diplomatic endeavors can be described as follows:
1.Consolidate diplomatic ties
Taiwan has 24 diplomatic allies, 6 of which reside in the Asia-Pacific region, 12 in the Americas, 5 in Africa, and 1 in Europe (the Holy See). To strengthen diplomatic ties, the Ministry will consolidate Taiwan’s bilateral relations through the frequent exchanges of high-ranking officials, international cooperation and humanitarian aid. Our diplomatic allies have spoken in our favor at international events and have supported our bid to participate in international organizations. For example, The Gambia and Nicaragua have spared no effort to support Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations. Last year before the 59th World Health Assembly was convened, Sao Tome Principe and another 14 allies of ours issued the proposal －Inviting Taiwan to Participate in the WHA as an Observer. These allies have initiated proposals and spoken on Taiwan’s behalf regarding our bid to participate in the United Nations and the World Health Organization. They have also supported Taiwan’s claim at other international events, thereby clearly showing the strength of the friendship between us.
Rather than just playing a diplomatic numbers game, China now hopes to lure away our allies at crucial moments, such as on key holidays or before a senior Taiwan official departs to visit the said ally. By doing so, China tries to undermine the confidence of the people of Taiwan, causing them to fret over Taiwan’s diplomatic plight. China has initiated various cooperation forums in Africa, Central and South America and the South Pacific in an attempt to stop Taiwan from developing regional cooperation with allies through bloc politics. Last October, for example, China sponsored the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) in Beijing and encouraged Taiwan’s African allies to attend. Due to the long-term friendship and mutual trust between our allies and Taiwan, none of them partook in the event.
In the Pacific region and Central and South America, China organizes regional forums like the China-PIF Economic Development and Cooperation Forum and the Friendship Forum between the Private Sectors of China and Central America. Under the pretext of developing regional economy, China attempts to erode the relations between Taiwan and its allies. In light of China’s active aggression, MOFA must work even harder to extend and secure Taiwan’s relations with its allies.
2.Develop cooperative partnerships
Since all countries are members of the global village, Taiwan looks forward to developing diversified cooperative partnerships with all friendly countries. Such partnerships do not aim to put Taiwan in a diplomatic row with China, but rather to let Taiwan meld with the trend of globalization. Taiwan strives to make full use of its limited resources to develop bilateral cooperative models that apply to the specific conditions of each particular country.
During the pursuit of diplomatic ties, Taiwan is willing to form official diplomatic ties based on an equal and mutually beneficial footing with friendly nations. To further our participation in international organizations, Taiwan consolidates the strengths of allies, friendly nations and NGOs to form cooperative relationships or regular consultation mechanisms with a wide variety of international organizations. Based on Taiwan’s advantages in agriculture, environmental protection, healthcare, sports and culture, Taiwan participates in international cooperative projects extensively to realize its meaningful participation in international organizations.
Moreover, thanks to Taiwan’s democratization, the vibrant private sector provides much needed assistance to the government for developing external relations. Taiwan’s advanced healthcare and information technologies have laid a solid foundation for national development, forming a type of soft power that can serve to extend Taiwan’s foreign policies.
3.Establish an alliance based on the core value of democracy
Foreign affairs are offshoots of domestic ones. As Taiwan’s core values consist in part of democracy, freedom and human rights, MOFA implements its policies accordingly. Being a fledgling democracy, Taiwan enjoys its achievements and fulfills its responsibilities in promoting democracy in other countries and regions.
The international community actively seeks to befriend China due to its large market and commercial opportunities. Universal values such as democracy and human rights, however, should not be replaced by commercial interests. Democratic nations are responsible for engaging in peaceful dialogue with China, urging it into becoming a member of the global democratic community. The democratization of China is an important task of the world in the 21st century. We believe that Taiwan’s own experiences in democratization will positively influence China into taking this course in the future.
I appeal to all members of the global democratic community to unite and collectively assist undemocratic countries, including China, to abandon autocracy and embrace democratic reform. This January, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy invited the former heads-of-state of five young democracies, namely South Korea, Mongolia, El Salvador, Poland, and South Africa, to Taiwan for the launch of the Global Forum on Emerging Democracies. The forum serves as a platform for emerging democracies to share their opinions on democratic developments and review the disruptions to and retrogression of democracy during the transition. Through reciprocal exchanges and learning, the members will march toward democratic consolidation together.
4.Promote diplomacy based on humanitarianism and co-prosperity
The 21st century is marked by economic globalization. Although globalization creates wealth and accelerates economic development, it impacts the distribution of income in the process. In other words, globalization alone will not allow all countries to enjoy prosperity; instead, it serves as a double-edged sword. On one hand, globalization reaps enormous benefits from the division of labor, while on the other hand it widens the income gap among nations. Consequently, the United Nations Millennium Summit announced its Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2000. The alleviation of poverty remains a goal shared by all countries that will aid in reducing globalization’s negative impact.
Since the end of WWII, Taiwan has encountered many difficulties, yet has managed to transform itself into the 19th largest economy in the world. Taiwan’s experiences can serve as a model for other developing countries. Over the past year, MOFA has assisted its allies with their economic development by dispatching agricultural missions, establishing processing zones, and encouraging Taiwanese enterprises to invest in these countries. Likewise, Taiwan has participated in international organizations and initiates pragmatic proposals that will benefit the economic development of other member states. For example, the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) was proposed by Taiwan. The project involves the establishment of an ADOC in the major cities of six APEC member economies. Taiwan has been negotiating with Central and South American countries on free trade agreements too as a way to lift trade restrictions.
Through humanitarian aid, MOFA has assisted over 30 local non-governmental charity organizations to provide disaster relief to over 50 countries. In February 2006, MOFA and the Department of Health jointly established TaiwanIHA, a special unit that integrates Taiwan’s healthcare resources and promotes international health cooperation and emergency humanitarian aid. TaiwanIHA shows Taiwan’s sincerity and enthusiasm to give back to the international community, while highlighting Taiwan’s identity. TaiwanIHA has helped brand Taiwan as an important partner of global healthcare organizations. One could not find better representatives of Taiwan’s love than the medical caregivers dispatched to south Asia and east Africa.
Through multilateral cooperation, Taiwan hopes to play a more constructive role in the areas of humanitarian aid, healthcare assistance, and development. Taiwan hopes to make the international community understand that our diplomatic policies are based on the universal ideals of care and co-prosperity.
IV. Conclusion: Stand firm in the camp of freedom and democracy to usher in a brighter diplomatic future
In facing the challenges from globalization and the rise of China, I have visited our embassies and representative offices abroad to encourage our staff members to always remain steadfast, confront tribulation and maintain their diplomatic fighting spirit. MOFA staff members embark on their diplomatic duties with the utmost of caution so as not to disappoint people and government of Taiwan. I believe that only with a strong combat unit can Taiwan reap the most benefits from our diplomatic endeavors and defend ourselves from countries more powerful than us.
Though hard powers remain crucial to international politics, the soft powers of democracy, human rights, culture, education, healthcare, technology and information play an increasingly important role. Taiwan will take full advantage of its soft powers and share its development experiences to help develop mutually beneficial cooperative partnerships.
I often encourage my colleagues by reminding them of the old saying, “Those who live in misery will thrive, while those who bask in comfort will perish.” Although Taiwan must confront the sudden rise of China and its brutal suppression, the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains undaunted. We believe that the international situation will turn for the better with time and, more importantly, that we are in the right. With the support of the people of Taiwan, the MOFA staff members devote themselves to the tasks at hand. We have deep faith in the future of Taiwan’s diplomatic relations.