￭ Taiwan diplomacy's strategy & tactics  ￭ Taiwan-US  ￭ Taiwan-Asia&Pacific  ￭ Taiwan-Latin America  ￭ Taiwan-Euro.  ￭ Taiwan-China(mainland)  ￭ more
  

♣   US News, Bloomberg, etc, 2025-4-23: Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te will not attend the funeral of Pope Francis, despite making requests to the Vatican, a move that breaks with precedent and removes a rare opportunity to mix with other world leaders. Taiwan's then President Ma Ying-jeou led a delegation to the Vatican for Pope Francis' inauguration in 2013, while his predecessor Chen Shui-bian attended Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005. Pope Francis had in recent years worked to improve ties with Beijing that were formally severed in 1951. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-04-23/taiwan-pushing-for-president-to-attend-pope-francis-funeral-senior-official-says;msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-president-to-skip-pope-s-funeral-after-talks-with-vatican/ar-AA1DroE2?ocid=BingNewsVerp

♣  Wall Street Journal (2024-12-5)  :  Taiwan is hoping to prevent Beijing from poaching more of its diplomatic allies. If China managed to gain dominance over the Pacific, that would impede U.S. forces from reaching Taiwan for support in a conflict.   The Taiwanese president has rolled out new offers,  but Taiwan's approach may not be effective in the long run, since China can offer far more financial assistance.  msn.com/en-us/politics/government/beijing-has-picked-off-taiwan-s-remaining-allies-taiwan-is-fighting-back/ar-AA1vjTJ0?ocid=BingNewsSerp  Joyu Wang, Austin Ramzy

♣  National Review (2024-10-7)  : Taiwan is losing the battle for diplomatic recognition overseas. The island nation cannot compete with China's “checkbook diplomacy,” preferring instead to await the day when the foreign beneficiaries of Beijing’s largess recognize the substandard services they're purchasing and see for themselves the point of diminishing returns.  Washington treated Taiwan as a chip to be traded away. But greater geostrategic interests have always prevailed over “tangible” considerations...   nationalreview.com/corner/taiwan-on-the-brink-day-one/

♣  New York Times (2024-11-30)  :  China says that Taiwanese leaders' stopovers on American soil violate Washington diplomatic understandings with Beijing;  Taiwanese leaders have used their brief stops to promote stronger ties with the United States.  In uncertain times, experts say, Taiwan needs every edge of international advantage that it can get, including from its small allies in the Pacific.  Over the past decade, China has used generous offers of aid and investment to draw away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, partly in an effort to stifle Taiwan’s global standing and also as retaliation against successive governments led by the Democratic Progressive Party. nytimes.com/2024/11/30/world/asia/taiwans-president-pacific-islands-china.html

♣  Wall Street Journal (2024-12-1)  :  Taiwan has 12 official remaining diplomatic allies. The number of countries that have maintained official relations with Taiwan has diminished over the years, sometimes under pressure from Beijing.   

♣  Wall Street Journal (2024-12-1)  : "transits" are part of careful arrangements made between Washington and Taipei to allow its leaders to engage with each other on American soil after the two severed formal diplomatic ties in 1979.  In recent years, such trips by senior Taiwanese officials have generated a sharp response from the Chinese Communist government, which opposes any official communication between Washington and Taipei.

♣  Bloomberg (2024-10-8)  :  like the US and many other countries, Japan usually avoids clarity on Taiwanese sovereignty, a stance aimed at avoiding angering China.

♣  NPR (National Public radio, 2024-8-19)  : Taiwan is not officially considered a sovereign nation by most other countries and does not have the ability to conduct normal diplomacy.  As rhetoric heats up over whether the U.S. should defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion, there is also growing skepticism in Taiwan over U.S. reliability as a security partner. npr.org/2024/08/16/g-s1-14682/taiwan-us-election-china

♣  Taiwan is losing its friends.  BBC (2023-10-16): A spooked and lonely Taiwan looks for new friends. Increasingly Taipei relied on its chequebook to hold on to a dwindling list of allies, mainly in the form of aid and investment. But today China's cheque book is bigger than Taiwan's.   Economist (2023-3-28) With China's wallet growing ever larger, Taiwan may instead need to hope that historical ties help to sustain the loyalty of its few remaining diplomatic partners. economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/03/28/why-is-taiwan-losing-its-friends  AFP (2023-3-28): Latin America has been crucial to the diplomatic struggle between Beijing and Taipei since they separated in 1949, after the Chinese civil war....the decision by Honduras was a blow to Washington  news.yahoo.com/china-taiwan-battle-lines-run-014450552.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

♣  Some has been more willing to engage with Taiwan

Bloomberg (2024-4-17): Taiwan Moves to Boost Its Global Standing with Chip Diplomacy - a lot of countries discover the existence of Taiwan mostly because of semiconductors  finance.yahoo.com/news/taiwan-moves-boost-global-standing-073112637.html  SCMP (2024-3-14): Taiwan's biggest chip producers have already been pressured to invest in new facilities in the US, Germany and Japan. It's not just about helping two Western allies to re-industrialise but to guarantee continuity of production in the event of an open conflict.

Mint (2024-4-4): India's prime minister expressed solidarity with ‘the resilient people of Taiwan’ after the island suffered its worst earthquake in 25 years.  Taiwan's dominant position in semiconductors is one of the primary reasons India has increased its engagement of late, as is its desire to attract foreign investment in general.  India and Taiwan have also signed a labour mobility agreement that will allow Indian workers to find jobs in the island country. India's political troubles with China are probably also playing a role here. The two countries have spent the last four years locked in a border standoff that has frozen bilateral relations. livemint.com/politics/policy/mint-explainer-why-is-pm-modi-s-message-to-the-people-of-taiwan-significant-11712222525142.html