Why shan’t it be named?
To spite China for your petty argument, you did pretty write good story of Portugal. Wonder why is it that the majority of the countries colonised by Portugal are the bottom of the least developed countries in the world.
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Maybe because they were not colonized by a super power of the 20th century. If you see well in the list of countries who had been colonized by Portuguese, you’ll see a pattern of civil war between factions supported by either the US or the USSR.
The true fact is that most of our possessions were in Africa, where almost no country is well developed, I would say… it goes for countries colonized by brits, french, italians, whatever…
Except for a few countries who had far more colonizers than indigenous people, you cannot say colonization was a success.
Isn’t Portugal the worst economic performer in the EU?
Sorry, I didn’t want to create a new “a country might change diplomatic relations to the PRC” thread, but it seems like Paraguay might be a possibility, as they have a leftist President-elect who has vowed to have diplomatic relations with the PRC.
It’ll be an interesting sign of what to expect over the next 4-8 years, with Ma at the helm.
Beijing doesn’t want to embarrass Ma or “compress Taiwan’s international space”, but Beijing also doesn’t want to reject a truly willing diplomatic partner, but Beijing doesn’t also want to set the precedent of having relations with “two Chinas”. I don’t see an obvious good solution.
Most Latinamericans believe Taiwan (not the PRC) is still fighting to rule China (mainland). Furthermore, they depend on what they BUY from the PRC -food, clother, medicines- since more conservative governements have focused on export and service oriented economies, and land especulation, leaving agricultural production and food autonomy (deemed lower, non competitive items) on the side. Plus, the rebirth of the left also makes them far more inclined to prefer relations with the PRC.
Hence, if teh governemnt in Taiwan shows closer ties with Beijing, teh governments and people over there can’t tell the difference anyway, so eventually they will all switch. That will not benefit them as much as they expect, nor Taiwan, in the short and long run.
LOL, one advantage with the “diplomatic truce”, no more switching back and forth. Amen.
[quote]Taiwan will not consider retaking Malawi as a diplomatic ally, despite rumors of the African country’s discontent with Beijing, a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said yesterday after local media reported that Lilongwe regretted abandoning Taiwan in December 2007.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said that under the “diplomatic truce” with Beijing, Taipei would not take back a former ally because such a move could sabotage recent cross-strait rapprochement and rekindle the traditional hostility on the diplomatic front.
“If someone breaks up with you, but later wants to get back with you because he got dumped, would you take him back?” said the official, adding that if Taiwan were to take back Malawi, Beijing would not hesitate to lure more of Taipei’s remaining 23 allies.
Allies including Paraguay, Panama and Guatemala had been rumored to be on the verge of switching recognition prior to the cross-strait detente, but Beijing’s reluctance had undermined their desire, he said.
…
Beijing reportedly offered a US$6 billion financial package among other economic incentives in exchange for recognition by Lilongwe.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported yesterday that Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika was unhappy with Beijing because of its broken promises, a mistake he feared would hurt his chances for re-election.
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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/02/05/2003435270
In other news, and for comparison, Costa Rica received 100 thousand USD from China as a donation for earthquake relief. President Arias critiziced the US and other "developed countries for not helping enough -after he said himself he wouldn’t bother teh powers because they had enough trouble with their economies, said right after China stepped up with this amount of money. Then Spain gave 300 thousand. Imagine how much Taiwan would have been forced to give. (Note: US gave only 50 thousand)