Following China’s recall of its ambassador to Lithuania, the Baltic country said it remains committed to developing mutually beneficial relations with Taiwan. This highlights China’s diplomatic dilemma in the COVID-19 era as well as Taiwan’s diplomatic opportunities.
China’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy is a sign of how Beijing’s international tactics are aimed at a domestic audience. This has shifted its diplomatic focus from the Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平)-era policy of China concealing its ambitions and biding its time, which gained international recognition and gave China an advantage, to nationalist propaganda focusing on punishing those who cross China even if they are far away.
The logic behind this shift is the search for a new legitimacy for the Chinese Communist Party’s one-party dictatorship after the slowdown of economic growth.
Only by molding Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) into the savior of the Chinese nation would the “little pinkies” — the country’s nationalist keyboard warriors — forget about the growing troubles in their lives and replace them with flag waving and slogan chants.
Such anxieties and needs have become increasingly intense amid a US-China trade dispute, supply chain restructuring and the ravages of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was also this situation that led to a display of complete disorder in the US-China talks in Alaska.
The pandemic is another important factor affecting diplomacy. As many countries find themselves in dire circumstances with mass infections and deaths, it is only natural that China — with its poor human rights record, diplomatic misconduct, rising nationalism, constant expansionism and increasing isolation as a result of the pandemic — would become increasingly resented.
Just as Taiwan’s government encountered difficulty following a COVID-19 outbreak that started in May, many governments around the world are facing problems such as public anxiety, declining support and challenges from political opposition.
With an urgent need to establish political legitimacy, it is becoming increasingly difficult for China to accept diplomatic threats, so Beijing instead tries to strengthen its political legitimacy by sticking to its position and forcefully resisting opposition.
From the Canadian parliament’s support for the Halifax International Security Forum resolution to present the 2020 John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to several countries donating COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan; and from the revision and discussion of the phrase “Chinese Taipei” for Taiwan at the Tokyo Olympic Games to Lithuania’s insistence on developing a mutually beneficial relationship with Taipei, Taiwan is the beneficiary of other countries’ conflicts with China.
Taiwan’s recent diplomatic breakthroughs have not only been a result of its inherent strengths and the efforts of its diplomats, but the conflict between China and the rest of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has also been an important driver of these changes.
Because of China’s diplomatic failures, Taiwan has been seen, discussed and assisted by more people.
The present time has been the most difficult for Chinese diplomacy in the past 30 years. It is also a time that presents Taiwan with the best chances for making diplomatic breakthroughs.
Hsieh Wen-che is an assistant research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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