Taiwan Loses A Latin Ally To Beijing

Taiwan is taking "extreme precautions" to hold onto allies in Latin America after Costa Rica switched its diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, the Taiwanese foreign minister said Thursday.

Foreign Minister James Huang, who revealed he had offered to resign over losing Costa Rica's allegiance, said he had ordered embassies in that region to exercise intense vigilance over attempts by rival China to woo more diplomatic allies.

Huang's comments came just hours after Costa Rican President Oscar Arias announced that the Latin American country had broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan after nearly 60 years and established relations with China instead.

China said Thursday it welcomed the establishment of ties with Costa Rica and urged other allies of Taiwan in Latin America to end their relationships with the island.

"The establishment of diplomatic ties is in the interest of the two countries and people. It has paved the way for friendly and beneficial cooperation between the two sides," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news conference.

"We hope the relevant countries can follow the trend of the times and make the right choice," Yu said.

Arias said the decision was related to Costa Rica's desire to bolster its economy.

"We are looking to strengthen the commercial ties and attract investment," Arias said. "China is the most successful emerging economy in the world and soon it will be the second strongest economy in the world after the United States."

The Costa Rican announcement sent shock waves through Taiwan, where fears are rife that others among the island's dwindling band of diplomatic allies could cast their lot with Beijing, further increasing its already substantial international isolation.

Only 24 countries now recognize Taipei while some 170 have ties with Beijing.

Speaking to reporters at the ornate foreign ministry building in downtown Taipei, Huang said he believed that Costa Rica was an isolated case, but acknowledged he had ordered Taiwanese embassies in Latin America to guard against possible Chinese inroads.

"I've asked our embassies to take extreme precautions against any further pressure by the Chinese communists," he said.

Since splitting amid civil war in 1949, Taiwan and China have fought a no-holds-barred battle to win the diplomatic allegiance of countries around the world, offering grants and other inducements to the mostly poor nations that are now the focus of their rivalry.

Beijing, which still claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan more than five decades after the island split from the mainland during a civil war, demands that its diplomatic allies break any formal ties with Taipei.

Analyst Andrew Yang of the Taipei-based Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies said the Costa Rican action would probably create a chain reaction among at least a number of Taiwan's remaining seven Latin American allies.

"This will have a significant impact on other countries, a kind of domino effect" he said. "Probably Nicaragua and Panama are next and then maybe Paraguay."

Should Taiwan's Latin American position deteriorate, the democratic island of 23 million people would then have to count on its remaining allies — mostly small and impoverished nations in the Caribbean, Africa and the south Pacific — to bolster its claims of international legitimacy.

That would represent a sharp turn turnaround from the high watermark of its diplomatic position in 1967, when it had full relations with 67 countries, including the United States and much of western Europe.

Things started to go badly for it in 1971, when the United Nations shifted its recognition from Taipei to Beijing. By 1979 — when the United States pulled its embassy out of the Taiwanese capital — only 22 countries were left.

Now, 24 states recognize Taiwan. Dozens of others — including the United States, Japan and Great Britain — maintain quasi-official offices — part of a diplomatic sleight of hand to honor Beijing's condition that full diplomatic recognition be accorded to only one of the rivals.

In his remarks at the foreign ministry, Huang said he had gone to President Chen Shui-bian and offered to resign to take responsibility for the Costa Rican move on China.

Huang did not say if the offer had been accepted.