Following Lithuania, Slovakia has also announced plans to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, saying that 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab would be given to the nation to return the favor of Taiwan’s mask donation last year.
Like Lithuania, Slovakia’s friendly gesture to Taiwan risks offending Beijing, and reveals its disappointment with China’s human rights record and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The image of Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) intimidating Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil over his visit to Taiwan in September last year is still fresh in people’s minds.
At the time, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova, as well as German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas and the European External Action Service, issued statements that they were not impressed by Wang’s behavior.
A member of the EU, Slovakia has maintained good relations with Prague after Czechoslovakia’s “velvet divorce” in 1993, when it split into two independent states, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Slovakia and Lithuania are members of the Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (China-CEEC). To deepen the relationship under the BRI, the second China-CEEC Seminar on Innovation, Technology Cooperation and International Technology Transfer was held in Bratislava in September 2015, and a virtual China-CEEC technology transfer center was established in November 2016.
However, development projects under the BRI in Slovakia fell short of the country’s expectations — Slovakia hoped that the China-CEEC Tourism Coordination Center would be established in Bratislava, but Hungary was awarded the tender.
It also hoped that the headquarters of the China-CEEC Investment Promotion Agencies Contact Mechanism would be established there, but the liaison office opened in Poland
Slovakia is also the only country of the four Visegrad states that does not have a branch of the Bank of China.
Disappointed about those developments, then-Slovak prime minister Andrej Kiska did not participate in the fourth China-CEEC summit in November 2015, indicating that the country’s attitude toward the China-CEEC and the BRI has turned negative.
In 2017, Bratislava proposed a framework for development and economic relations with China, planning to bolster cooperation from that year until last year, and appointed a representative for negotiations with Beijing with regard to BRI projects.
However, due to disagreements within Slovakia, the proposal progressed no further.
The BRI has since been ignoring Slovakia’s needs, and questions arose over economic benefits promised by Beijing’s initiative.
As for human rights, unlike the country’s previous leaders, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and Caputova are on the same page. Heger has repeatedly condemned Beijing for serious human rights abuses.
Coincidentally, the Slovak parliament has been focused on transitional justice.
On Nov. 4 last year, it passed a legal amendment declaring that the Czechoslovak Communist Party and its branches, which from 1948 to 1990 ruled Slovakia from Prague, were criminal organizations that suppressed civil society and restricted people’s freedom.
In this view, Taiwan should focus its diplomatic efforts in Europe on Slovakia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
Experts have also said that Slovakia is planning to deepen its relations with Taiwan to increase resilience and diversification of its supply chain.
In general, there is space for Taiwan to develop its friendly ties through economic and technology cooperation, as well as human rights, with countries that are disappointed with their cooperation with China under the BRI.
Chang Meng-jen is an associate professor in Fu Jen Catholic University’s Department of Italian Language and Literature, and coordinator of the university’s diplomacy and international affairs program.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump’s second administration has gotten off to a fast start with a blizzard of initiatives focused on domestic commitments made during his campaign. His tariff-based approach to re-ordering global trade in a manner more favorable to the United States appears to be in its infancy, but the significant scale and scope are undeniable. That said, while China looms largest on the list of national security challenges, to date we have heard little from the administration, bar the 10 percent tariffs directed at China, on specific priorities vis-a-vis China. The Congressional hearings for President Trump’s cabinet have, so far,
US political scientist Francis Fukuyama, during an interview with the UK’s Times Radio, reacted to US President Donald Trump’s overturning of decades of US foreign policy by saying that “the chance for serious instability is very great.” That is something of an understatement. Fukuyama said that Trump’s apparent moves to expand US territory and that he “seems to be actively siding with” authoritarian states is concerning, not just for Europe, but also for Taiwan. He said that “if I were China I would see this as a golden opportunity” to annex Taiwan, and that every European country needs to think
For years, the use of insecure smart home appliances and other Internet-connected devices has resulted in personal data leaks. Many smart devices require users’ location, contact details or access to cameras and microphones to set up, which expose people’s personal information, but are unnecessary to use the product. As a result, data breaches and security incidents continue to emerge worldwide through smartphone apps, smart speakers, TVs, air fryers and robot vacuums. Last week, another major data breach was added to the list: Mars Hydro, a Chinese company that makes Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as LED grow lights and the
RSS