25501: Hermantin(News)China tries to pick off Taiwan's allies (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jun. 24, 2005


LATIN AMERICA
China tries to pick off Taiwan's allies

BY DANIEL P. ERIKSON
DErikson@thedialogue.org

China's charm offensive in Latin America and the Caribbean took a sudden turn 
in recent weeks, when Beijing unexpectedly challenged a one-year extension for 
the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti. This destitute country of eight million 
people has been patrolled by the international community since last year, when 
a bloody uprising led to the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The roughly 7,500 multinational forces in Haiti include 125 Chinese riot 
police, representing China's first deployment of a sustained security presence 
in the Western Hemisphere. Most significantly, China's newfound interest in 
Haiti and other Caribbean countries is part of a long-term strategy to achieve 
Beijing's top foreign-policy goal of isolating and eventually reclaiming its 
''renegade province'' of Taiwan.

The chaotic nation of Haiti makes an unlikely battleground for the diplomatic 
face-off between China and Taiwan. Since March 2004, the interim government of 
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has struggled to maintain order in the midst of 
ongoing political and economic malaise. An estimated 700 Haitians have been 
felled by violence since last September, and the U.S. Embassy recently 
evacuated all nonemergency personnel. When the current U.N. mandate expired at 
the end of May, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the peacekeeping 
mission to be extended for one year, to help shepherd Haiti through the voting 
process and an eventual transition to a democratically elected administration.

But China sees the promotion of a ''One China'' policy as its surpassing 
foreign-policy priority, and Haiti is among a dwindling group of Latin American 
and Caribbean countries with normal diplomatic ties to Taipei. As a result, 
China was quick to exploit its new leverage in Haiti.

Backed by its veto on the U.N. Security Council, China argued that peacekeepers 
should be granted only a six-month extension, which would end before Haiti's 
crucial presidential run-off contest scheduled for mid-December. China's 
opposition was further stoked by the planned visit of Haitian President 
Boniface Alexandre to Taiwan this July. In a compromise, the United Nations 
approved an eight-month extension to peacekeepers in Haiti that will expire 
just as the country's elected leadership begins its struggle to take control of 
the country. Although the agreement leaves Beijing well-positioned to maintain 
pressure on Haiti's next government, Chinese diplomats surely know that the 
reduced mandate has introduced greater uncertainty into Haiti's political 
process and heightened the risk of violence.

Nearly half of the 26 countries that back Taiwan are located in the Western 
Hemisphere, including all of the Central American countries plus Paraguay. In 
recent years, China has been trolling Caribbean waters to pick off Taiwan's 
remaining allies.

• In 1997, the Bahamas and St. Lucia were rewarded with millions of dollars in 
trade and aid packages for granting diplomatic recognition to China.

• In 1998, China joined the Caribbean Development Bank, taking a 6 percent 
capital stake and establishing a special $1 million trust fund for Chinese 
experts to provide regional assistance.

• Most recently, the tiny island countries of Dominica and Grenada were both 
handsomely compensated by China for revoking longstanding support for Taiwan. 
Dominica fetched $112 million pledged over six years, while Grenada received 
support for rebuilding and expanding the national stadium for the 2007 Cricket 
World Cup, the construction of 2,000 housing units, a $1 million scholarship 
fund and $6 million in grants.

China's recent power-play at the U.N Security Council's deliberations on Haiti 
underlines how seriously it is pursuing diplomatic recognition in the 
Caribbean. Meanwhile, China's economic links to the region are rapidly 
intensifying. In 2004, Chinese trade with the Caribbean totaled $2 billion, an 
increase of more than 40 percent over the previous year. China is now Cuba's 
third-largest trading partner, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in 
the island's nickel industry. Meanwhile, China is keen to win the support of 
the five Caribbean countries that recognize Taiwan: Haiti, the Dominican 
Republic, Belize, St. Kitts & Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. China 
is also seeking to normalize relations with Central America, as demonstrated by 
the decision to invite Guatemala's economics minister to Beijing this week for 
trade discussions.

In recent congressional testimony, Gen. Bantz Craddock, the head of the U.S. 
Southern Command, declared that ''an increasing presence of the People's 
Republic of China in the region is an emerging dynamic that must not be 
ignored.'' As Haiti and other Caribbean countries are quickly learning, 
flouting China's foreign-policy demands -- especially on the issue of Taiwan -- 
is becoming a luxury they can no longer afford.

Daniel P. Erikson is director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American 
Dialogue.