By Earl Bousquet
Every birthday since 2004, I envision exciting things about the possible future of ties between China and Taiwan and between Caribbean nations and Chinese on both sides of the Strait dividing them – and today is no exception.
Maybe it’s because I have been fortunate enough to have spent one birthday each on the Badaling Section of The Great Wall of China and in an upscale oriental restaurant at Taipei 101 (the tallest building in Taiwan’s capital at the time) and both parties shared with colleague Caribbean journalists.
I didn’t pay for the two valuable lifelong birthday experiences, only lucky enough they coincided with official visits to both sides of the Strait, over-a-decade apart.
About a dozen visits to Beijing and Taipei since 2003 have enabled me to better see and understand today the hidden realities that belie the overwhelming similarities and sometimes cosmetic or politically-inspired differences that feature life on both sides.
I understand what they mean when the political leadership on each side insists it accepts there’s only one China, but fundamentally disagree on which or what is.
And I harbor neither visions, nor illusions, about Taiwan formally declaring Independence, today or tomorrow, in the context of gaining observance as a sovereign country recognized by the United Nations.
The battle over one China is more than a 71-years-old neighbourly quarrel between a giant mainland and a tiny island separated by a narrow channel of water.
But thankfully, the two sides haven’t exchanged blows, or bows and arrows, over the short natural barrier.
Instead, they’ve both demonstrated for eight straight years during the 21st Century that when the political chemistry coincides on both sides, it always redounds to the best interests of the Chinese families divided since 1949.
Chinese on both sides of the Strait demonstrate their support with their feet and pockets, packing flights and building bridges at all available levels (social and economic) and boosting tourism, trade and communication – to the mutual benefit of both sides and in ways never seen.
But time and history always throw up challenges and opportunities worth watching and more-than-just noting, many of which are (unfortunately) not seen and therefore not taken positive advantage of – to better situations begging for normally evasive solutions.
Two sets of similar challenges and opportunities exist right now that can change history on both sides.
The first that China and Taiwan can agree to work together to vaccinate the entire population of Chinese in Taiwan with a Chinese-made vaccine, instead of condemning them to wait indefinitely for the Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.
The second is that with St Vincent and the Grenadines still appealing to the world for humanitarian support following the destruction of one-third of the island; and dislocation and relocation to emergency shelters of over 20 percent of its population just over one month ago. China can easily make a significant no-strings-attached donation to the multi-island Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nation, including vaccinations for less than 100,000 people.
This would not be unprecedented, Taiwan having done the same and donated direct aid to Dominica following hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017, despite the island having ties with China.
Both possibilities are possible with a snap of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s fingers and a Taipei administration willing to dance.
But the art of diplomacy and the mechanics of politics across and between the Straits, as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines being one of Taiwan’s five allies in CARICOM, has seen Beijing (understandably) go into necessary (but possibly also excessively) cautionary diplomatic overdrive.
China and Taiwan have long been missing the boat in Saint Lucia too, the only country in the region (and maybe the world) where a major national project – a Psychiatric Rehab hospital meant to serve the entire OECS was started by China and completed by Taiwan.
And then there was the very surprising decision by the Saint Lucia government in 2011 not to break ties with Taiwan and re-establish with China, despite the ruling Saint Lucia Labor Party (SLP) having bilateral ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Fact is, between China and Taiwan, most of the Caribbean’s major problems can be solved, starting with the inoculation of the entire CARICOM region with a combination of Chinese vaccines and Taiwan’s top-secret formula on how to keep COVID at bay with only 12 dead for as long as it did before the 333 new cases discovered last weekend.
China and Taiwan’s established trade policies towards the Caribbean have not yet resulted in the levels of business investments the region would have been praying for, labor-intensive or IT-driven.
But giant and micro-sized Chinese construction companies also successfully bid for contracts in CARICOM member-states on account of China’s (non-borrowing) membership of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Indeed, small Chinese and Taiwanese construction firms with government contracts currently work near or next to each other in St Vincent and the Grenadines – a situation that preceded the earthquake.
Beijing and Taipei have shown no sign yet of willingness to do anything more than preserve and protect their separate ties with respective allies, all of which belong to CARICOM.
But both can also be seen as possibly overlooking or underestimating the significance of some challenges and therefore missing attendant opportunities to positively change and make history between them and (in this case) with their Caribbean friends.
If they listen carefully, Chinese leaders would hear Caribbean allies silently telling them they’re ‘too long on ideology and much-too-short on delivery’ (as one told me once); and vice versa – Beijing and Taipei would also tell regional leaders they’re both (and each) wary of being played against each other in the game of dollar diplomacy.
But while keeping their ears more peeled to smoke signals of disagreement than opening their eyes to a new dawn that’ll see and treat the Caribbean as the fertile testing ground it’s been over time, repeatedly demonstrating the fruitfulness of frankly agreeing to disagree and working together on what’s agreed.
Like, in this case, healing wounds, making life worth living and building bridges of mutual friendship in a small region with all the usual big challenges – and opportunities – only waiting to be examined much closer in the new global context.
CARICOM and OECS have both managed regional ties with Beijing and Taipei in ways that respect the choices of individual member-states and both would be only too willing to embrace and engage with both sides of the Strait to positively change history together, to mutual gain and for the benefit of all.
But it can all only start with the Chinese sides being again willing to kick the buck, walk and talk—and ‘walk the talk’ (as we say in the Caribbean).
Like I always say, nothing ever happens that hasn’t happened before and in this case all that’s happened point to infinite possibilities, if only the political will can be equally summoned on both sides of the shared Strait.
In that sense, let’s never ever say never!
