Taiwan Prepares Aid
it Hopes China Can't
Match
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI, July 18
(Reuters) - Taiwan,
recognized by only 24
governments around the
world, will give $340
million this year to
third-world countries,
playing up new types of
assistance that it hopes
China cannot match, an
aid agency head said on
Wednesday.
China, which has viewed
self-ruled Taiwan as
part of its territory
since the end of the
Chinese civil war in
1949, seeks to isolate
Taiwan internationally
and has amassed 170
diplomatic partners
compared to Taiwan's
two-dozen mainly small,
poor countries in
Central America, the
South Pacific and
Africa.
Both sides often accuse
each other of dollar
diplomacy, or offers of
aid or cheap loans to
curry influence with
would-be diplomatic
allies.
The new development aid
will include $2 million
for Caribbean ally St.
Lucia, which defected
from China in May, and
extended aid for Costa
Rica which switched its
allegiance from Taiwan
to China in June, the
Foreign Ministry's
International
Cooperation and
Development Fund said.
The fund decided that
from the second half of
this year through 2008
it would offer aid it
believes China lacks
experience to provide,
Chen Cheng-chung, the
fund's
secretary-general, said,
naming agricultural and
Internet expertise and
hospital resources as
three potential areas.
"These are unique items
that can be supplied by
the Taiwan government
and civil society," said
Chen.
Central America has been
a trouble spot this
year, with Nicaraguan
leaders asking Taiwan
for more aid after
Daniel Ortega, an old
China friend, was
elected president.
Taiwan Vice President
Annette Lu visited
Paraguay, the Dominican
Republic, Panama and
Guatemala last week, the
first formal visit to
the region by a
Taiwanese official since
Costa Rica switched
allegiance to China.
"We do everything we
can, but we can't do
everything," Chen said.
"We touch the grass
roots. This is the
reason we can maintain
diplomatic ties."
The budget, which comes
from parliament and the
interest on a $240
million fund left over
from U.S. aid to Taiwan
in the 1960s, has held
steady for about five
years as other
government departments
lose funding, Chen said.
In Latin America,
Taiwan-funded
scholarships and private
investment aid would
continue for Costa Rica
as Taiwan "waits to see"
whether that country
switches back to Taiwan,
Chen said.
St. Lucia would receive
$2 million for public
health, meat processing
factories and banana
planting, he said.
Paraguay asked Taiwan to
help it build a disaster
relief centre when Lu
visited, Chen said.
Over the next year and a
half, a slice of aid
money would go to the
Vatican, Taiwan's most
influential ally, for
its effort to rid banana
crops of disease in
Latin America, he said.
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