Taiwan and Palau: How to maintain this diplomatic alliance?

Abstract

The People’s Republic of China, sometimes simply referred to as China, will not tolerate independence for Taiwan (Republic of China) and a formal declaration of independence would most probably bring military intervention. At the moment, the best Taiwan can do is to retain its status quo. Taiwan has been trying to overcome its diplomatic isolation by allying with countries that hold United Nations votes and are willing to vote for Taiwan. This quest for recognition has been particularly oriented towards newly established small and poor countries where it is most likely to succeed. There are twenty-three countries that officially recognize Taiwan. Palau, a small island state with a little over 20,000 inhabitants is one of them. The focus of this paper is to examine how Taiwan maintains this official diplomatic tie established in December 1999 in the wake of the China-Taiwan competition. General tactics of the Taiwanese Foreign Policy are applied on this one particular example, Palau, one could think, not important microstate in the Pacific. This paper examines the impact of political ideology, foreign aid, and dollar diplomacy on the quality of the alliance between Taiwan and Palau. It also aims to research whether the Taiwan-Palau alliance is sustainable for the future.

Keywords: Taiwan’s foreign relations, Palau, diplomatic alliance, dollar diplomacy.