Attention! The Three Countries that Broke Ties with Us in a Row All Had Maintained Diplomatic Relations with the ROC for over 7 Decades

  Attention! The Three Countries that Broke Ties with Us in a Row All Had Maintained Diplomatic Relations with the ROC for over 7 Decades

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 22, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

No sooner had President Tsai Ing-wen returned to Taiwan than the news of El Salvador breaking diplomatic ties with us came out. Barely a day ago, Tsai Ing-wen, in transiting the United States, endlessly declared various “breakthroughs”— the courtesies of touring NASA’s Johnson Space Center, public media events, and remarks made in public— suddenly became less meaningful. On the scale of diplomacy, on the one side, it was courtesies in form that lacked weight, and on the other side, it was the fall of an important diplomatic partner; the end result was of course a serious loss.

El Salvador and the ROC had diplomatic ties for 85 years; this point should not be overlooked. Such a long diplomatic relationship abruptly came to a halt during the term of the Tsai government. Panama, which broke ties with the ROC in June of last year, had a diplomatic relationship with us for 107 years; the Dominican Republic, which broke ties with us last May, had a history of diplomatic relations with us for 77 years. From the record of long diplomatic relations, it may be seen that these countries were not opportunists that swam between the two sides of the Strait; now, because of the cavalierness of the Tsai government, they were poached one by one by Mainland China.

Foreign Minister Joseph Wu had just visited El Salvador in the middle of last month; the Foreign Ministry even issued a press release saying that the mission was smooth and “diplomatic ties are friendly and stable between the two countries.” Who knew, after only a little more than a month, friendly and stable relations were pronounced beyond rescue; thus, we could see that either the Foreign Ministry lacked a grasp of the changes, or it was a fake report from the frontlines when the Foreign Minister was visiting there earlier.

As a small state, in cross-Strait relations and diplomatic routes, Taiwan must be smarter, more flexible and pragmatic so as to grasp space and time to create a broader future for ourselves and our next generation. But the DPP government, however, took the opposite direction, even to the extent of sacrificing the welfare of Taiwan’s people as bargaining chips in its confrontation with the Mainland.

Joseph Wu has been in office for barely half a year; Mainland China has poached three of our diplomatic partners during his term of office, all being veteran friends of seven or eight decades of history. If we could not keep even this type of countries, then what other diplomatic partners would not fall? Nevertheless, just for a president who does not believe in the Republic of China, and for a premier who hoorayed for "Taiwan independence" three times, do we want to lose all of our diplomatic partners?

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