Despite the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) unwavering plan to adopt a One China Policy if elected to office, the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) is again asserting its full support for strengthening diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, Taiwan.
This according to a release by the government on the 10th of April.
During the last sitting of the House of Assembly the NDP’s representative for East Kingstown, the Honourable Fitz Bramble, stated the NDP supports relations with Taiwan and added that the NDP had no intention to switch to a One China Policy, an apparent shift from the party’s stance.
The release stated that despite a lack of correction by the leader of the NDP the Honourable Dr. Godwin Friday during the sitting of the house, he later stated that there was no shift in the NDP’s policy and plan to adopt a One China Policy. In 2016, the NDP announced that should they be elected to government, they would abandon diplomatic relations with the ROC, Taiwan, in favour of a One China Policy. However, the release noted that the dissonance within the Parliamentary Opposition is driven not by principle or policy but by political opportunism.
“The dissonance within the Parliamentary Opposition is driven not by principle or policy but by political opportunism.
On the one hand, the NDP itself benefits from the largesse of entities resident in, or associated with, the PRC; on the other hand, the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines do NOT want any alteration in diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Thus, the NDP’s confusion amidst its failure to resolve the contradiction between money in their Party’s coffers from sources in mainland China and the public support for ROC (Taiwan) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” the release outlined.
According to the release the ULP government’s position is based on the following elements. Our government asserts that there is “One Chinese Civilisation” from which have developed or evolved at least two legitimate, authoritative, political expressions organised as states with demarcated territorial boundaries.
Two such formal state expressions of the Chinese civilisation are the PRC and ROC (Taiwan). The Chinese civilisation has been politically fractured since 1949, a short period in that civilisation’s 6,000-year history.
The healing of that fracture or any rapprochement between the two distinctly organised state expressions is a matter principally for the Chinese civilisation, the PRC, and the ROC (Taiwan).
SVG’s central interest in PRC-ROC (Taiwan) relations focuses on peace across the Taiwan Straits. SVG’s relations with ROC (Taiwan) are grounded in the principles and precepts of the Charter of the United Nations, inclusive of the right to self-determination.
SVG’s foreign policy in relation to ROC (Taiwan) is not transactional. We do not have a “For Sale” sign in a metaphoric show window at our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. St. Vincent and the Grenadines does not, and cannot, accept that the PRC has a sovereign right to put a pre-condition on any possible diplomatic relations with the PRC.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines does not have diplomatic relations with the PRC because the latter insists that a pre-condition of such relations is for SVG to sever diplomatic ties with ROC (Taiwan); this ULP government in SVG will not do. SVG engages with the PRC in practical ways in institutions to which both countries belong.
This engagement takes place, for example, in the Caribbean Development Bank (SVG is a Borrowing Member”; the PRC is a “Non-Borrowing Member”); the United Nations and its various agencies; the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; and so forth. SVG under the ULP government does not interfere with, or comment on, in anyway, the internal affairs of the PRC. The ULP government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines notes the following: (i) The PRC and Taiwan (as a territory) belong to the World Trade Organisation — political and other dissonances may exist but the PRC and Taiwan trade with each other; (ii) Mainland China receives in excess of 40 percent of Taiwan’s foreign direct investment; (iii) State and non-state institutions in both the PRC and Taiwan cooperate on matters of mutual interest.
To the extent that there are contradictions between St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the PRC on diplomatic relations and other engagements, these contradictions are non-antagonistic. (Mao Tse Tung’s philosophical essay “On Contradictions” and his distinction between antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions are useful for our reflections here.) SVG admires deeply the Chinese civilisation and its differing formal, institutional expressions.
It holds in especial high regard the resilience, creativity, material and scientific advances, and commitment to democratic values of the government and people of ROC (Taiwan). SVG considers it an absurdity for the PRC to affirm that Taiwan is “a province” to be re-incorporated into “One China” under the PRC when Taiwan and its people have been governing themselves for 74 years, thus far, in peace and prosperity.
Further, the people of Taiwan do not wish to be governed or ruled by the PRC.
Neither the political economy of imperialism or of hegemony justifies the subjugation of an independent, free, and democratic Taiwan against its people’s wishes or interests. Overall, our government in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has as its operational mantra: “Friends of all; we strive for a better world.” SVG and the ROC, Taiwan established formal diplomatic relations August 15, 1981, under the leadership of the Right Honourable Robert Milton Cato, Prime Minister.
Successive governments have maintained an deepened relations with the ROC, Taiwan, however, according to the release under the ruling ULP government “relations have been deepened, broadened, and strengthened immeasurably, in the mutual interest of both countries, and in pursuance of global peace, prosperity, and security for all.”