From El Salvador to last week’s typhoon in Japan, China is engaged in a blackmail campaign to remove Taiwan from the international stage.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/11
By: By Jason Lim

Credit: Wikipedia Commons CC0

Last month, El Salvador announced it will establish diplomatic relations with China. Under the “one China” policy, this meant El Salvador had to break official diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The end of the 47-year relationship marks a disturbing trend with the excuse countries have used to break ties – it amounts to political blackmail.

El Salvador reportedly asked Taiwan for about US$20 billion to fund a port project, as well as additional money for political campaign contributions. Taiwan rejected the call for political contributions as an inappropriate interference with El Salvador’s domestic affairs, while Taiwanese engineers insisted that the port was not economically viable.

Credit: Reuters / TPGSalvadoran Roberto Romero waits to visit the Taiwan embassy a day after El Salvador broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of China.
Countries with diplomatic ties to Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) are blackmailing Taipei before ditching ties in favor of diplomatic relations with Beijng. In December 2016, Sao Tome and Principe ended its 19-year relationship with Taipei the same way El Salvador did. It had allegedly asked for US$200 million for financial aid that the Taiwanese government thought was exorbitant – Taiwan’s foreign minister called it “astronomical”. Sao Tome responded by ditching diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
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