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EDITORIAL: Ma only
has eyes for China
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leaves today on a visit to three of Taiwan’s
African allies, a long-overdue trip that has already been overshadowed by the
cancelation last week of a planned stop in Sao Tome and Principe. Despite what
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Office have said, such a
development does not bode well for Ma’s diplomatic efforts.
The reputed reason for the cancelation was that Sao Tomean President Manuel
Pinto da Costa would be unable to play host to Ma because of a prior engagement
in Cuba. Sao Tomean Minister of Foreign Affairs Manuel Salvador dos Ramos has
been quoted as saying that it was simply a scheduling conflict, not an
indication of strained relations, but that stretches credulity, given that the
cancelation came just two weeks after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei
announced the trip.
State visits are always organized well in advance and meticulously scripted, so
it is hard to believe that Pinto da Costa’s Cuba trip somehow just cropped up.
In addition, was it a coincidence that the March 27 announcement came just one
day before officials from Sao Tome and Principe attended the Forum for Economic
and Trade Cooperation Between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, in Macau.
After all, Pinto da Costa maintained diplomatic ties with Beijing when he served
as president from 1975 to 1991. Although diplomatic relations were established
with Taipei in 1997, his re-election in August last year raised the question of
ties to China.
Beijing has maintained something of a “hands-off Taipei’s diplomatic allies”
policy since Ma was elected president in 2008 — in the interest of improved
cross-strait relations — but that may not matter if it is Pinto da Costa
pressing for a renewal of ties rather than simply a case of checkbook diplomacy
or ally poaching.
For a nation with so few diplomatic allies, Taiwan has given its four African
friends rather short shrift since Ma took office. His trip will be the first to
that continent since former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited in 2002.
In 2010 a trip tentatively set for July was scotched because Ma did not want to
be abroad during typhoon season, while a trip later that year was out of the
question because he wanted to be at home for the special municipality elections.
On Feb. 17 last year the foreign ministry announced that Ma would not make a
planned trip to Africa because of domestic issues — though this year it blamed
the delay on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which had not even occurred
when the postponement was announced — and mass protests in North Africa.
Now that Ma has finally run out of excuses, he has a lot of time to make up. He
will be visiting a variety of facilities that Taiwan has helped build —
hospitals, schools and factories — and agricultural cooperative projects. Such
visits may be just symbolic, but if Taiwan wants to retain the allies it has, it
needs to remind them of their importance to the nation and Taiwan’s importance
to them. This is best achieved through visits by high-level delegations, as well
as enhanced day-to-day diplomatic contacts.
Ma has frequently promised to do all he can to broaden Taiwan’s international
presence, but his emphasis on cross-strait affairs has only served to limit the
nation’s international visibility. In that context, his all-too-rare overseas
visits have only served to reinforce the impression that the only foreign
relations that matter to him are the relations with China.
Ma may not be able to do much about Sao Tome and Principe, but let’s hope he
impresses the other allies.
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