Dominican Republic dumps Taiwan, forges ties with China

There are now only 19 countries around the world which still have full diplomatic relations with the Republic of China

Taiwan’s global power and prestige has taken yet another hit with the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic switching sides and choosing to recognize the People’s Republic of China.

“The government of the Dominican Republic recognizes that there is but one China in the world, that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” reads a joint statement that was put out by the Beijing and Santo Domingo governments today.

At a press conference this morning, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that his government was “deeply angry” over the Dominican Republic’s decision, condemning Beijing’s use of “dollar diplomacy” in “converting” another one of its diplomatic allies.

Wu announced that Taiwan’s relations with the Dominican Republic had been terminated and that all cooperative projects and assistance in the country had been called off.

At another news conference on the other side of the globe, Flavio Dario Espinal, a legal adviser to the Dominican president office, said that his country’s government was grateful for Taiwan’s help over the years, but explained that “history and the socioeconomic reality force us now to change direction.”

Espinal added that China had now become the Dominican Republic’s second-biggest supplier of imports, even without formal diplomatic ties.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry has asserted that in order to entice the impoverished country to switch sides, Beijing offered an “astronomical” amount of monetary assistance.

“Beijing’s attempts at [using] foreign policy have only served to drive a wedge between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, erode mutual trust, and further harm the feelings of the people of Taiwan,” Wu said.

There are now only 19 countries around the world which still have full diplomatic relations with the Republic of China — a number that seems to be shrinking fast.

Back in 2016, the tiny African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe suddenly severed diplomatic ties with Taipei, before re-establishing relations with Beijing less than a week later. Afterward, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said that Taipei refused to engage in “dollar diplomacy” with Beijing.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry repeated that declaration the following year after Panama made its decision to dump Taiwan in favor of China. In a visit to Beijing later that year, Panama’s president insisted that his government’s decision had nothing to do with “checkbook diplomacy.”

However, since the election of Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, as Taiwan’s president in 2016, China has further increased its spending abroad with one of its obvious aims being to further isolate the self-ruled island that it considers a breakaway province.