Last Saturday, the anti-China and pro-independence Lai Ching-te won the high-profile presidential election in Taiwan.
It only took barely two days before the dictatorship in Beijing gave the new leadership in Taipei a stinging slap in the face. China simply loaded the wallet and paid the tiny country of Nauru an undisclosed sum of millions to break up with Taiwan and instead join Beijing’s gang.
A group that, incidentally, Sweden, the entire EU and the USA are part of because we, like most nations in the world, do not want to anger the great power China.
13 countries before the election – now twelve
Since becoming a democracy in 1996, Taiwan has slowly but surely tried to build a cluster of allies, countries that were willing to recognize Taiwan as an independent state.
Before the election, there were 13 countries.
Now they are down to twelve.
It is mostly small states in the Pacific Ocean and in South and Central America that have ventured on the risky path of establishing formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Countries like Taiwan have been able to offer trade policy advantages and have had enough skin on their noses to be able to dare to defy the powerful Chinese regime.
The support group risks shrinking even more
The risk is now clear that Taiwan’s support group will shrink even more. China wants to inflict maximum humiliation on Taiwan and the pressure will be hard on Taiwan’s twelve allies.
The region’s most brutal boss has picked out both the whip and the carrots. Nauru was bought over today. Soon more states will be lured/threatened over to Beijing’s camp.
But the question is whether Beijing’s methods expose the communist regime’s weaknesses rather than inspire respect or admiration?