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Isolated Diplomatically by China, Taiwan Is Finding Friends in Europe

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Leaders in Europe are offering diplomatically isolated
   Taiwan a sudden chorus of support this year, giving the democratic
   Asian island welcome international exposure and a morale boost during
   its spiraling struggles with China.
   On Oct. 7, the Prague city council cut off a 3-year-old sister-city
   relationship with Beijing after China asked his city to uphold a policy
   that binds Taiwan and China under the same flag. This week lawmakers
   from France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Parliament launched the
   Formosa Club to strengthen relations with Taiwan, including trade and
   investment ties, the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Taipei said.
   National governments around Europe are still expected to keep
   diplomatic relations with China instead of Taiwan. Beijing doesn't
   allow both at once, and European countries value their links with the
   massive Chinese economy.
   However, the support of European leaders boosts Taiwan's confidence by
   pushing back against China, even if just in words and a run of symbolic
   deeds, observers say. It also bolsters the reelection campaign of
   Taiwan's China-cautious President Tsai Ing-wen over a China-friendly
   rival, some suggest.
   "They might keep up a good front and try to develop the relationship
   with Taiwan," said William Sharp, an Asia specialist with the
   University of Hawaii at Manoa.

   "I think most countries in Europe have a group of Taiwan aficionados. I
   think the world is maybe getting a little bit tired of Chinese
   bullying."
   China-Taiwan relations
   China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the Chinese
   civil war of the 1940s and threatened to use force if needed to unify
   the two. Beijing, backed by the world's second-largest economy and
   third-strongest armed forces, asks that other countries avoid
   recognizing Taiwan diplomatically.

   Since Tsai took office in 2016, declining Beijing's precondition for
   dialogue that both sides belong to a single China, the Chinese
   government has ramped up military, economic and diplomatic pressure.
   Officials in Taipei say China used economic incentives to make seven
   Taiwan diplomatic allies -- Burkina Faso, Kiribati, Panama, Sao Tome
   and Principe, the Solomon Islands, the Dominican Republic and El
   Salvador -- switch allegiance to Beijing over the past three years.
   Taiwan, recognized now by just 15 small and mostly poor nations
   worldwide, looks increasingly to informal relations with the more
   powerful Japan, the United States and countries in Europe for help in
   resisting China.
   

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