Does size matter? Foreign aid in Taiwan's diplomatic strategy, 2000–8

Abstract

This article is the first systematic attempt at estimating the size of Taiwanese foreign aid and, thus, the cost of Taiwan's aid diplomacy. It questions the Republic of China (ROC) President Ma Ying-jeou's justification of his ‘diplomatic truce’ with China as necessitated by an ineffectiveness of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian's costly aid diplomacy. Deriving its evidence from the ROC governmental budgets, local media reports and interviews with Taiwanese officials involved in foreign aid implementation, the article argues that President Chen did not engage in ‘generous financial aid’ and proposes that this parsimony, rather than futility of aid diplomacy as a strategy to expand Taiwan's international space, should be considered as contributing to Taipei's diplomatic failures from 2000 to 2008.

Keywords:

• aid diplomacy
• China
• foreign aid
• Taiwan

Notes

1. In mid 2006, the Chen government attempted to procure diplomatic relations with PNG with the help of two Taiwanese businessmen. MOFA paid US$30 million into a bank account the pair had set up in Singapore. However, the brokers failed to deliver on their pledge and refused to return the money (Chung 2008). Most likely, the money was intended to bribe PNG officials, rather than contribute to PNG economic development.

2. In 2008, Taiwanese media reported on the US$25 Million ‘Latin Amercian Project’ (Lamei'an) which MOFA reportedly sourced from the ‘second reserve fund’ to support diplomatic velations with Central America.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Czeslaw Tubilewicz

Czeslaw Tubilewicz is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History and Politics at the University of Adelaide. He has authored Taiwan and Post-Communist Europe: Shopping for Allies (Routledge, 2007) and edited Critical Issues in Contemporary China (Routledge, 2006)

Alain Guilloux

Alain Guilloux is a Lecturer at the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong. He has authored Taiwan, Humanitarianism and Global Governance (Routlege, 2009)