US$3.1 billion seems to have been the price for China to secure diplomatic recognition from the Dominican Republic, but the long-term effects of the decision could cost the Caribbean nation an awful lot more
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/03
By: David Spencer, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer
If you ask 100 people in the street to point to the Dominican Republic on a map, the
Person pushing up Chinese yuan. (Image by pixabay user Tumisu)
overwhelming majority would be unable to do so.
This small country (which for your information is located just to the south-east of Cuba in the Caribbean) shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and is as far from being a global power as you can get. It is home to 10 million people and the world’s 76th largest economy, which is largely built on tourism and mining.
And yet the Chinese Communist Party has judged that diplomatic recognition from the Dominican Republic is worth US$3.1 billion. The reason might seem obvious. China is ramping up its ongoing diplomatic assault on Taiwan by trying to steal its diplomatic allies at any price.
This is a factor of course. The Communist regime in China is fundamentally opposed to the democratically elected Taiwanese government given its unfounded claims to sovereignty over Taiwan. Any action which could be seen as damaging to the Taiwanese government and Taiwan’s international standing is therefore of interest to Beijing.
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