VP Blames Former
Ambassador For Severance
of Taiwan-Costa Rica
Ties
By Wen Kuei-hsiang and
Y.F. Low, Central News
Agency
Aboard a charter plane
to Paraguay, July 6 (CNA)
Republic of China Vice
President Annette Lu
Friday attributed to the
country's former
Ambassador to Costa
Rica, Wu Tzu-dan, the
greatest share of
responsibility for the
severance of diplomatic
relations between the
two countries last
month.
According to Lu, Wu was
"completely in the dark"
about the fact that
Costa Rica secretly
signed a joint
communique with the
People's Republic of
China on the
establishment of
diplomatic ties June 1.
"Strictly speaking, the
Legislative Yuan was too
lazy, because it should
have looked into Wu's
responsibility, " Lu
told reporters during a
flight from the
Dominican Republic to
Paraguay, the second leg
of her current
three-nation Latin
American visit.
Lu claimed that whether
diplomats have fulfilled
their duties and whether
they have the skills to
deal with foreign
relations are crucial to
the continuation of
relations between Taiwan
and its diplomatic
allies.
Pointing to Wu and his
predecessor Mao Kao-wen,
Lu said the two
diplomats were incapable
of handling ties with
Latin American countries
as neither speaks
Spanish.
To improve Taiwan's
foreign service, Lu
proposed that the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs establish a fair
and reasonable system to
promote career diplomats
and cooperate with local
universities to train
more Spanish-speaking
talent.
Lu said there are two
ways for Taiwan to
maintain its relations
with its diplomatic
allies: providing
substantial aid and
deepening friendship,
and the "soft diplomacy"
that she has been
promoting, which aims to
deepen Taiwan's
friendship with its
diplomatic allies, does
not cost much money.
Urging the country's
legislators to make more
frequent visits to
countries with
diplomatic ties with
Taiwan, Lu suggested
that the Legislative
Yuan restrict the use of
government funding by
legislators for foreign
trips so that the funds
can only be spent on
visits to the country's
diplomatic allies.
Lu noted that during a
series of conferences
held last year on
reforming the country's
foreign policy, she
proposed replacing
checkbook diplomacy with
"development diplomacy"
and using Taiwan's
experience in developing
science-based industrial
parks to help boost the
economic development of
its diplomatic allies.
Taiwan can also assist
its diplomatic allies in
building hospitals as an
extension of medical
aid, so as to make the
local population aware
of Taiwan's generosity,
she said.
According to Lu, many
Taiwanese expatriates
and businessmen in the
United States have
expressed interest in
serving in Latin America
after retirement, and
the government should
make use of such
resources to expand the
country's foreign
relations.
On the proposal by some
diplomatic allies in
Latin America that
Taiwan reduce their
debts, Lu said this is a
price that Taiwan must
pay to secure its ties
with the limited number
of diplomatic allies,
stressing that debt
reduction does not mean
unconditionally
eliminating the debts
completely.
Taiwan now has 24
diplomatic allies around
the world, 12 of which
are in Latin America.
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