TAIWAN: CHINA DANGLED $3B TO GRAB ALLY

TAIPEI/BEIJING— China offered the Dominican Republic a $3.1billion package of investments and loans to get them to sever ties with Taiwan, a Taiwan official said on Tuesday, after the Caribbean nation switched allegiance to China in a diplomatic blow to the self-ruled island.

China said there were no economic preconditions.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own, has formal relations now with only 19 countries, many of them poor nations in Central America and the Pacific like Belize and Nauru.

Generous aid packages

China and Taiwan have tried to poach each other’s allies over the years, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations.

Panama ended its longstanding relationship with Taiwan last year in a major diplomatic victory for China.

The news on the Dominican Republic switch, announced in both Beijing and Santo Domingo, drew strong and swift condemnation from Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Dollar diplomacy

“President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic has ignored our long-term partnership…and the years of development assistance provided by Taiwan, to accept false promises of investment and aid by China,” Wutold reporters.

“(Taiwan) strongly condemns China’s objectionable decision to use dollar diplomacy to convert Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.

A Taiwan foreign ministry official told Reuters that China dangled at least a $3.1-billion package of investments, financial assistance and low-interest loans for the Dominican Republic.

That included $400 million for a new freeway, $1.6 billion for infrastructure projects and $300 million for a new natural gas power plant.

“It was a cost that Taiwan could not match,” the official said.—